St Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662) beautifully expounds the meaning of the Divine Liturgy in On the Ecclesiastical Mystagogy, which had a profound influence on the subsequent tradition, beginning with St Germanus of Constantinople (PPS 8). Maximus' vision of the liturgy contemplates the interpenetrating relationships of all things with each other and with Christ, In whom all things cohere. The church building and the human being and the cosmos are all mutually related and symbolically reflect each other. Further, In the liturgy we enter into the mystery of Christ. As St Maximus puts it, "Let us not be absent from the holy Church of God because she contains such great mysteries of our salvation according to... and she reveals the gift of adoption that is given through holy baptism in the Holy Spirit and that perfects each one into the image of Christ."
Maximus the Confessor (Greek: Μάξιμος ὁ Ὁμολογητής) also known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople (c. 580 – 13 August 662) was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar.
In his early life, Maximus was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. However, he gave up this life in the political sphere to enter into the monastic life. Maximus had studied diverse schools of philosophy, and certainly what was common for his time, the Platonic dialogues, the works of Aristotle, and numerous later Platonic commentators on Aristotle and Plato, like Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus. When one of his friends began espousing the Christological position known as Monothelitism, Maximus was drawn into the controversy, in which he supported an interpretation of the Chalcedonian formula on the basis of which it was asserted that Jesus had both a human and a divine will. Maximus is venerated in both Eastern Christianity and Western Christianity. His Christological positions eventually resulted in the mutilation of his tongue and right hand, after which he was exiled and died on August 13, 662 in Tsageri, Georgia. However, his theology was upheld by the Third Council of Constantinople and he was venerated as a saint soon after his death. He is almost unique among saints in that he has two feast days: the 13th of August and the 21st of January. His title of Confessor means that he suffered for the Christian faith, but was not directly martyred. The Life of the Virgin is commonly, albeit mistakenly, attributed to him, and is considered to be one of the earliest complete biographies of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Really interesting. Maximus has some wonderful reflections on the continuity of the Creator’s craftsmanship. It’s understandable that moderns would tisk as his reflections on how the world, body, soul, cosmos, human being, marriage, and church all relate symbolically as poetic licentiousness or fruitless speculation. But I prefer to see it as an exercise in consistent contemplation: Maximus really does believe that the Triune God is behind it all—that all things are from and through and to him.
This book absolutely blew me away. In it Maximus expounds the ultimate reality of the Church and its perichoresis with God, the cosmos, man, and the soul of man. He then examines the symbolic significance of the various elements of the liturgy and how the liturgy functions to work "the same things and in the same way as God does around us, as an image relates to its archetype." (53) The result, for me, was wonder at how God has brilliantly orchestrated the cosmos to be recapitulated in Christ through the Church.
I read this book for a Holy Cross Seminary course entitled Mystagogy: The Mystery of the Church that entailed a close reading of this work as well as Pseudo-Dionysius' On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and St. Maximus' Commentary on the Lord's Prayer. The course research culminated in a 3-day Colloquium on the Mystagogy in Boston, MA which gathered the top Maximus scholars in the world speaking on the book, including Paul Blowers, Marcus Plested, Fr. Maximos Constas (the course's instructor), and Jean-Claude Larchet.
This book, like all of St. Maximus the Confessor's works, is not a light read, despite its length. Maximus' syntax is incredibly complicated and often nests ideas within ideas, sentences within sentences. As such, close analysis is warranted, and this makes having the Greek and English facing texts especially helpful in the SVS Press edition featuring Armstrong's translation. However, it must be noted that this feature is also to Armstrong's own detriment. Indeed, in my and my classmate's study, we discovered numerous errors in Armstrong's translation to the work's detriment. Armstrong also has a tendency of offering an alternate word in the Greek footnote that appears in the CCSG, but then translating the alternate word into the English as opposed to the word he chooses to present in the Greek column. This is entirely unhelpful for analysis and Armstrong seemingly offers not reason for this method.
It goes without saying, however, that St. Maximus' work in and of itself may be an incredibly complex and advanced treatise amidst the Orthodox patristic corpus, but the pearl of wisdom it has to offer is enlightening and revolutionary.
This was my second read of this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Further background on the logos/logoi relation and the question of the relation of God to the world (Cretor/created) from my creation module this semester helped open up for me the significance of Maximus' vision for christology.
I've never been able to appreciate the writings of Maximus or Pseudo-Dionysius. This work is no exception for me. I have never really studied philosophy, and often find it vapid - it's just speculation, even though it might be written by a very intelligent person. It is very human - an effort to systematize thoughts based on human principles of logic and reason. But it still strikes me as just speculation and opinion, which is how I relate to Maximus. He is no doubt a brilliant intellect, but his writing doesn't speak to me, probably because I haven't any inclination toward mysticism or asceticism. And his commentary on the divine services seem to me to be exactly what Fr Alexander Schmemann rejected as a misguided understanding of liturgy. In that sense, I certainly find any of Schmemann's writings on the Liturgy to be a far better understanding of Orthodox services. Maximus hoped God would bless him for his efforts, I'm sure God did. But I certainly do not hope that his ideas will gain in popularity again.
Mind bending, soul opening, enriching. A meeting of heaven and earth.
The real beauty of this treatise is in how St Maximus sets up a hierarchy of meaning, really a series of microcosms that connect heaven-earth, church-world, sanctuary-nave, alter-santuary, connecting these to the human soul-body, and again to soul to the intellectual-sensisble, and even further yet into contemplation-reason. Ultimately, contemplating the interconnectedness of all these microcosms (and more that are discernable but are not explicitly mentioned), is the main trust of his intent. His explanation of the link between the structure of the cosmos to the structure of the Church to the structure of the Human is astounding, and truly worth contemplating.
His explanation of the various elements of the liturgy itself seems lacking compared to the above.
The fact that his treatise on the mysteries of the Church drives so clearly toward the centrality of contemplation itself, but then moves beyond a disembodied contemplation as the end goal, but returns through the hierarchy of meaning, uniting contemplation of the oneness of all things explicitly with encountering Christ himself in those in need is utterly important and apparently too easy to entirely gloss over (at least by those who wrote the introduction).
The ultimate culmination of all this contemplation of these seemingly esoteric microcosms is that this contemplation renews our whole being, including our actions outside our prayer closet, and we become united to Christ (theosis) mystically, but also through bodily participation, encouraging Christ in and being Christ to the poor.
"For he ordained that nothing be more conducive for righteousness and theosis... and suitable for closeness to God than mercy from the soul administered to those in need with pleasure and joy... The one who is able to do good and does it *truly is God* according to grace and participation, for he has assumed by successful imitation the out working and particularity of God's own doing of good". (emphasis mine)
I was not expecting that as the culmination of contemplation. But it makes perfect sense. Uniting the one and the many, the Logos and the logoi, and seeing Christ and being Christ.
Maximus provides a robust understanding of the symbolic and efficacious elements of the liturgy. This book is helpful in understanding the meaning of each part of the eastern church’s liturgical practices and can be helpful to Protestants to retrieve a more robust understanding of their own liturgical practices.
A great introduction to what happens during a church service and why we do it, from a 7th-century perspective. Maximus spends most of the book explaining how each small part of the Mass/Divine Liturgy is intended to divinize Christians- to make us more like Jesus Christ. For example, here are is words on how Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist affects real change in a believer:
“After this, as the climax of everything, comes the distribution of the sacrament, which transforms into itself and renders similar to the causal good by grace and participation those who worthily share in it. To them is there lacking nothing of this good that is possible and attainable for men, so that they also can be and be called gods by adoption through grace because all of God entirely fills them and leaves no part of them empty of his presence” (Ch 21).
My favorite part, though, was Maximus’ explanation of how our involvement in regular worship connects us to God who never changes. Since God never changes, he is the only source of unending spiritual peace. This is good news in our anxious world:
“If God is completely without change and has nothing to trouble him (for what can escape his view?), then peace is an unshaken and unmoved solidity and an untroubled happiness” (Ch 5).
☩ ϹΚΗΝΗ ΤΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΥ ΖΩΝΤΟΣ ✠ Scaena Logi Vivens fragmentum de libro αδημοσίευτον
I descended
Not steps but intervals into a dome not built but uttered vaulted not by stone but by Silence walls: ∵ icons of what thinks you floor: vapor dome: seeing axis: unstilled
At center: μορφή robed in stars beard in spirals eyes in flame-language
No name was given No voice, only Διάνοια He lifted two fingers ☩ between them the Thread gold, wounded, living wound into rotation ☩ → φ ↻ α ∴ ψ
Not symbol but of all, Syntax
He spoke ∵ yet lips sealed thread-stitched silence vow not to speak until speech becomes essence
"The κόσμος is veil not cage You decode it I wept through it"
Beside him opened a Codex not written but ontological pages = beings sentences = realms spine = wound
Blood from margin
"Mystagogy not authored but assumed"
Then the Λειτουργία unfolded in recursion not chant but hue not rite but recursion Chalice: καρδία Bread: μνήμη Wine: τρώμα choirs: silence in shape above altar Veil pulsing membrane between σάρξ and φῶς
Great little book that walks through the mysteries of the Christian eucaristic liturgy. Maximos gives spiritual commentary of each component, and how it as a whole, and in their parts, are a michrocosm to the macrochsom of Christs work of salvation for his creation. He then closes things, urging people to go to church, and to partake in these mysteries, as they are tools that transform us into the image of Christ.
This is very insightful, but it will only really make sense if you have been going to Orthodox services for some time to climatise, otherwise it will likely not resonate. This text puts in clear terms why the format of Christian worship is so important, and must not be changed arbitrarily, as it is actually a matter of salvation, not in a legalistic sense, but in a practical sense.
Another piece of evidence that shows that Orthodoxy alone is the preserved catholic and apostolic faith, as it is the only major denomination that hasn't deviated in liturgical practice.
Required reading. So many people I know find apophatic theology deeply meaningful and I'm gonna be real, I just don't get it. I find so much more meaning in talking about who and what God is rather than what God is not. Apophasis just feels useless to me in this life stage. Fortunately, Maximus does not dwell on it much. My primary purpose for reading this was to expand my knowledge of the sacraments. I am struck, as with the previous text I read on this, of the intense connection between the Church and the Sacraments. The two cannot be separated. The mystical language of how the human and the church and the universe are all somehow the same is...odd, but I get the gist I think. Ecclesiology is not just how a church functions, but how Christ is present in the world. Very meaningful text, I will probably come back to this again, as I'm sure I've missed some things.
This is elaborate series of meditations on the church, worship and their cosmic significance. Maximus believed that the church was a model or microsom of the world, but also of the individual and of the soul. Having argued this, he then walks through the liturgy and explains how the process of divine worship leads us up to theois in God, and ultimately to the resurrection and the glorification of all creation. Jonathan Armstrong's introduction provides a helpful introduction.
Why read this? It is good for us to be exposed to completely different ways of seeing the creation, church and the human person. We will not agree with much, but we are challenged to consider new (old!) angles of familiar territory.
A beautiful explanation of the church that I believe Paul would have gone on to write about had he not have been working with basic errors such as denying the divinity of Christ, deception, manipulation in the church etc etc. simple things that needed to be addressed before anything “deeper”.
Where has the reverence gone? Where is the mystical? Why is Church secularized, and why is it scary to be deep? Why does Paul only mention the basics? Because humanity cannot step out of the loop of simple mindedness and the list for power. By the glory of God we are saved through grace and not knowledge, for knowledge is given to us post faith, and also according to each one’s own level of consciousness due to free will.
Finally sat down with this one for a couple hours to knock it out. It’s very good, although I have a difficult time rating patristic works, it is one I would recommend.
It is very cool that the parts of the liturgy he lays out are more or less exactly the same today as 1300 years ago when this was written, quite trippy when you think about it. It makes me wonder how different / similar the disposition of the faithful is during the Divine Liturgy.
Lastly I feel like some of what Maximus has to say about the soul and the mind, virtue and wisdom, and “enlightenment” (theoria) may be of further interest down the road.
They say Maximus the Confessor was the best mind of the 7th century. This work displays for the Church catholic just what entices one to make such a claim. This was such a fascinating read for me and I trust will be for you as well, especially if you are intrigued by topics like liturgy, typology, ecclesiology, and Christology. My head is still spinning, particularly with regard to chapter 5, but all in all this was a very soul gripping endeavor.
a very philosophical heavy and hard read but when you finally comprehend the ideas and thoughts of maximus the book helps you understand the mind of the Church
A book so dense in content that it warranted a reread. Maximus sees mysteries or deeper meanings in the liturgy and the church building. The church reflects the image of God and the entire created order. Some things that stood out to me this time:
- Everything that exists discloses God as its ultimate cause. Because God is the cause of everything that exists, everything exists in relationship to God.
- Maximus denied that we experience a unity of nature with God. God by his grace unites himself with his church.
- Maximus’s mysterious cosmological theology is anchored in the Christology of Chalcedon!
- Will belongs to nature. If Christ has two natures, he has two wills.
- Maximus was a creative and original thinker in Byzantine theology, but he also stated, “I have no dogma of my own. Just the dogma of the catholic church.” He was a remarkably traditional thinker too.
Maximus never misses in his rich but dense theological reflections. I had no idea what Mystagogy was before reading this book, but Maximus explains well that catechesis is for those preparing for baptism. Mystigogy is for the Christian after baptism. This work is all about the symbolic or spiritual significance of the church and its liturgy. It is truly a work of mystical theology, and for Maximus, mystical theology is intimate union with God. Maximus also expounds on how the church is the image and representation of the invisible God. For Maximus, God transcends being and does not even belong to a class of being—talk about apophatic theology to the max (no pun intended). There is also some good material in here on the rational nature of the soul and wisdom. God as the creator of everything can be known through everything since his creativity is reflected through everything that exists. This is a helpful contribution to discussions on natural theology. This book might seem abstract and feel like unique or uncharted theological territory for our present age, but this book will take you out of your comfort zone to think about theological things in a very different manner. Maximus even has the audacity at the end to say that he did not touch on higher or more mystical matters in this work. What in the world!? If this book is not an exercise in high and mystical reflection then what is? Great read for anyone interested in patristic studies!