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On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings
St Maximus' two main collections of theological reflections-his Ambigua (or "Difficulties") and his Questions to Thalassius - plus one of his christological opuscula, hitherto unavailable in English, are accompanied by immensely helpful notes, and prefaced by a long, brilliant introduction to the theology of the Confessor.
188 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
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About the author
Maximus the Confessor
36 books83 followersMaximus 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.
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.
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December 11, 2014
St. Maximus the Confessor, The Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ, translated by Paul M. Blowers and Robert Louis Wilken (Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003). Pp. 188. Paperback $16.00.
On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ has become one of my top favorite books because St. Maximus has a holistic view of salvation. In the American context – the one in which I live – the predominate view of salvation is that one “accepts” Jesus as Lord and is, consequently, saved. This view is based on an idea of original sin that declares us guilty in an imaginary courtroom, but if we submit ourselves Christ, his sacrificial crucifixion pays our debts and we are able to “go to heaven.” This entire view, however, is foreign to ancient eastern Christianity and the Orthodox Church. St. Maximus’s view is that salvation is about union with God; one which is so intimate that we aren’t just “saved,” but we actually participate in the life of God. I believe this is a much-needed corrective to the Christian American’s view of salvation.
St. Maximus is, by no means, original. He stands on the shoulders of esteemed theologians who came before him, especially St. Gregory of Nazianzus. What he does do, is articulate theology in a very precise way, which includes using Greek philosophical argumentation; however, even this is borrowed from earlier Christian theologians – such as Origen – rather than directly from Greek philosophers. So, St. Maximus isn’t even innovative in this way, but rather he clarifies misinterpretations.
St. Maximus argues that ideally we are born, have movement towards God through our lifetime, and then come to find rest in God (salvation, deification, theosis). However, instead of moving towards God (contemplating God), humanity turned to move away from God (contemplating material things, or the world) instead. At this point, St. Maximus has a very interesting understanding of death, pain, and suffering. He says God introduced them into the world to show us that our contemplation of material things was flawed and not life-giving. Our pain, suffering, and eventual death are to get our attention so that we would turn again to God, the only one who gives life.
However, our fall introduces a vicious cycle into human existence. Our contemplation of material things is a search for sensual pleasure (as opposed to spiritual pleasure), which includes sexual gratification. Of course, this sort of pleasure brings about a birth that can only end in death. It seems that St. Maximus envisions that had humanity not fallen in the garden, our birth would not come about through sexual pleasure; however, he doesn’t elaborate on what a “spiritual” birth would have looked like in a pre-fallen world. Thus, pleasure, birth, and death become an unending cycle.
The solution and the plan for salvation is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. St. Maximus very clearly articulates that when Jesus became man, humanity was infused with divinity. This action recreates, or renews, our human nature. Because Christ was not born though sensual passion, he breaks the cycle of pleasure, birth, and death. Yet, because he does die, and this death is unjust, his death has the affect of triumphing over death. We, as Christians, are now given the opportunity to be reborn (baptism), and because this birth is also not the result of sensual pleasure, but rather spiritual contemplation, it unites us to Christ, and allows us to participate in the life of God. This is our second birth.
This union with God is salvation. Christ gives us the opportunity to turn our attention away from the contemplation of material things, and again towards the contemplation of God. In short, Christ shows us how to move towards God so that we can experience our third birth: resurrection. Thus, St. Maximus is able to say, “hence the whole man, as the object of divine action, is divinized by being made God by the grace of God who became man.” In short, being saved is much more than submitting to a master (Lord); rather it’s about synergistic union with God.
This book is one of the more, if not most, difficult books of the Popular Patristic series. However, it does include an excellent introduction that helps one pull St. Maximus’s theology together. Though it can be difficult working your way through this volume, I believe the payoff is priceless. This is well worth the read.
On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ has become one of my top favorite books because St. Maximus has a holistic view of salvation. In the American context – the one in which I live – the predominate view of salvation is that one “accepts” Jesus as Lord and is, consequently, saved. This view is based on an idea of original sin that declares us guilty in an imaginary courtroom, but if we submit ourselves Christ, his sacrificial crucifixion pays our debts and we are able to “go to heaven.” This entire view, however, is foreign to ancient eastern Christianity and the Orthodox Church. St. Maximus’s view is that salvation is about union with God; one which is so intimate that we aren’t just “saved,” but we actually participate in the life of God. I believe this is a much-needed corrective to the Christian American’s view of salvation.
St. Maximus is, by no means, original. He stands on the shoulders of esteemed theologians who came before him, especially St. Gregory of Nazianzus. What he does do, is articulate theology in a very precise way, which includes using Greek philosophical argumentation; however, even this is borrowed from earlier Christian theologians – such as Origen – rather than directly from Greek philosophers. So, St. Maximus isn’t even innovative in this way, but rather he clarifies misinterpretations.
St. Maximus argues that ideally we are born, have movement towards God through our lifetime, and then come to find rest in God (salvation, deification, theosis). However, instead of moving towards God (contemplating God), humanity turned to move away from God (contemplating material things, or the world) instead. At this point, St. Maximus has a very interesting understanding of death, pain, and suffering. He says God introduced them into the world to show us that our contemplation of material things was flawed and not life-giving. Our pain, suffering, and eventual death are to get our attention so that we would turn again to God, the only one who gives life.
However, our fall introduces a vicious cycle into human existence. Our contemplation of material things is a search for sensual pleasure (as opposed to spiritual pleasure), which includes sexual gratification. Of course, this sort of pleasure brings about a birth that can only end in death. It seems that St. Maximus envisions that had humanity not fallen in the garden, our birth would not come about through sexual pleasure; however, he doesn’t elaborate on what a “spiritual” birth would have looked like in a pre-fallen world. Thus, pleasure, birth, and death become an unending cycle.
The solution and the plan for salvation is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. St. Maximus very clearly articulates that when Jesus became man, humanity was infused with divinity. This action recreates, or renews, our human nature. Because Christ was not born though sensual passion, he breaks the cycle of pleasure, birth, and death. Yet, because he does die, and this death is unjust, his death has the affect of triumphing over death. We, as Christians, are now given the opportunity to be reborn (baptism), and because this birth is also not the result of sensual pleasure, but rather spiritual contemplation, it unites us to Christ, and allows us to participate in the life of God. This is our second birth.
This union with God is salvation. Christ gives us the opportunity to turn our attention away from the contemplation of material things, and again towards the contemplation of God. In short, Christ shows us how to move towards God so that we can experience our third birth: resurrection. Thus, St. Maximus is able to say, “hence the whole man, as the object of divine action, is divinized by being made God by the grace of God who became man.” In short, being saved is much more than submitting to a master (Lord); rather it’s about synergistic union with God.
This book is one of the more, if not most, difficult books of the Popular Patristic series. However, it does include an excellent introduction that helps one pull St. Maximus’s theology together. Though it can be difficult working your way through this volume, I believe the payoff is priceless. This is well worth the read.
November 7, 2024
Though I felt hampered by how little philosophy I have read, and though St. Maximus seems to rely more heavily (excessively?) on philosophical premises than St. Basil in On the Holy Spirit, I found the following themes of particular devotional significance:
-Divinization / theosis is the union of God with man, such that man shares more and more wholly in the divine nature both physically and spiritually. This emphasis is a helpful antidote to a theology of sanctification that unduly emphasizes moral betterment rather than oneness with Christ and being filled with the fullness of God. It also properly elevates the Lord’s Supper as the place of physical union with God, which is not only necessary for our forgiveness but also for our sanctification.
-The separation of body from soul in death does not rid the body of its humanity. Such a body, says St. Maximus, “is not simply called a body, but the body of a man, indeed the body of a certain man[.]” This reality has (or should have) profound influence on how we treat the dead bodies of loved ones. Their bodies do not cease to be human beings to whom we owe our honor and virtue.
-Baptism is an initiation into abundant wellbeing from God, a “bath of regeneration,” and that which now wields death against Satan to destroy sin rather than our human nature.
-Jesus is the worm in Jonah that eats through the gourd plant of the law so that we do not place our hope in its shade. He is also the worm that baits Leviathan with his humanity, and causes Satan to also swallow his divine nature and vomit out the human nature the devil had sought to destroy. (An underused, EPIC image for salvation.)
I am also convinced that I am not well-enough acquainted with the pre-modern mind, and am resolved to read church fathers until I begin to be.
-Divinization / theosis is the union of God with man, such that man shares more and more wholly in the divine nature both physically and spiritually. This emphasis is a helpful antidote to a theology of sanctification that unduly emphasizes moral betterment rather than oneness with Christ and being filled with the fullness of God. It also properly elevates the Lord’s Supper as the place of physical union with God, which is not only necessary for our forgiveness but also for our sanctification.
-The separation of body from soul in death does not rid the body of its humanity. Such a body, says St. Maximus, “is not simply called a body, but the body of a man, indeed the body of a certain man[.]” This reality has (or should have) profound influence on how we treat the dead bodies of loved ones. Their bodies do not cease to be human beings to whom we owe our honor and virtue.
-Baptism is an initiation into abundant wellbeing from God, a “bath of regeneration,” and that which now wields death against Satan to destroy sin rather than our human nature.
-Jesus is the worm in Jonah that eats through the gourd plant of the law so that we do not place our hope in its shade. He is also the worm that baits Leviathan with his humanity, and causes Satan to also swallow his divine nature and vomit out the human nature the devil had sought to destroy. (An underused, EPIC image for salvation.)
I am also convinced that I am not well-enough acquainted with the pre-modern mind, and am resolved to read church fathers until I begin to be.
July 24, 2016
In several ways, I found this a better introduction to Maximus than Maximus the Confessor: Selected Writings, which was focused primarily upon "spiritual" rather than dogmatic or theological writings. I make this distinction advisedly, because it is difficult to separate the spiritual from the theological in Maximus, but the overall theological vision presented in this volume provides what seems like a much more complete and comprehensive overview of Maximus's thought on the most important theological issues. The obscurity of the other volume's soteriology is improved here, although in some cases I find it to remain problematic. I also found the treatment of original sin quite weak, compared to that found in Augustine. There is too much emphasis upon the bodily as a problem qua bodily (at least in the form of bodily pleasure), whereas in Augustine--who gets no end of grief over the exact same issue--the central focus is in fact not on the bodily at all, but on the will. The treatment of the Fall and the result of the Fall in The City of God is an incredible achievement that makes one wish that Maximimus had been better familiar with it. However, Maximus's treatment of the incarnation, grace, and spiritual growth is very well done, and his treatment of the two wills of Christ is of course a decisive contribution to theological thought. Very highly recommended for those looking to get a glance into one of the primary sources of Eastern Christian thought.
(A postscript: This volume reinforced my sense that Dostoevsky was attempting to divide Maximus and the Eastern monastic tradition in two in his Brothers Karamazov, splitting Maximus into Father Therapon and the Elder Zosima. Ivan's ideas of Christ and freedom and the life of lofty virtue are uncomfortably close to Maximus's ideas of the same. It is quite obvious, now, that Dostoevsky wishes to explicitly reject Maximus's thought (or the tradition including his thought) regarding the body and pleasure and his version of asceticism while retaining something like his incarnational conception of grace and rebirth (or something like it).)
(A postscript: This volume reinforced my sense that Dostoevsky was attempting to divide Maximus and the Eastern monastic tradition in two in his Brothers Karamazov, splitting Maximus into Father Therapon and the Elder Zosima. Ivan's ideas of Christ and freedom and the life of lofty virtue are uncomfortably close to Maximus's ideas of the same. It is quite obvious, now, that Dostoevsky wishes to explicitly reject Maximus's thought (or the tradition including his thought) regarding the body and pleasure and his version of asceticism while retaining something like his incarnational conception of grace and rebirth (or something like it).)
May 25, 2020
I've read many texts by the Church Fathers -- I don't even know precisely how many, certainly hundreds of individual treatises -- and nothing is more impressive than this book. You can see why von Balthasar was such a big fan of Maximus (the subject of his best book); out of all Patristic authors, I'd say maybe Augustine, Chrysostom, or Climacus at their best approach Maximus in terms of quality, but the philosophical depth is just off the charts in Cosmic Mystery.
September 15, 2015
This is a multiple reading. My original review is at the bottom. This is more of an analytical reflection upon St Maximus.
All created being is in motion since it aims toward some end.
This combats Origenism. Origen (de Principis I.2) and his disciples said the order of things’ existence was stability (stasis), motion (kinesis), and becoming (genesis). This means a fall before the fall. It raises questions of how one could fall from enjoying the Beautiful. Maximus countered with the following:
(2) Becoming (Genesis), Motion (Kinesis), and Stability (stasis).
(2a) Motion is always directed towards an End.
Passibility (pathos): does not refer to a change or corruption of one’s power. It is that which exists by nature in beings. For that which comes into being is susceptible to movement.
The Logos of being: participation in god as good and is the principle of being.
On willing
(3) When one is firmly attached to a good there is a voluntary transcending of oneself, a willing surrender.
(3a) Gnomic willing is a non-natural volition.
Maximus then moves away from discussing a fall from Origen’s henad.
(4) The One Logos is the Many Logoi (p. 54 = [1077C]).
This statement is the perfection of what all ancient philosophy tried to be. Each thing remains distinct (Gk. asunchtos) from everything else. Yet Maximus also wants to say they are the one Logos. How does he do that?
(4*) The logoi are anchored within the Logos (55; Col. 1:15-17; Rom. 11:36)
(4’) The Logos multiplies the logoi after himself (and the logos of a thing precedes its existence).
(5) The Logos recapitulates all things in himself (Eph. 1:10).
Does this mean all things return back to the Logos? In so brilliantly cutting off Origenism has Maximus allowed Origen a return via apocastasis?
(5’) Since all things participate in God, and they participate proportionally, not all will have the same ending.
(5*) Thus, Maximus doesn’t posit an Origenist apocastasis.
The logos of our being pre-exists in God [1080C].
(6) All created things develop and are defined and limited by their logoi.
Ambiguum 8
Thesis: Bodily existence is within the realm of flux and chaos and needs the Creator to order it. God changes the atakton into the eutakton..
Logos/Tropos distinction. The logos is the principle of a thing. The tropos is the mode of existence. The Logos has innovated human nature not in its natural principle (logos phuseos) but in its post-lapsarian existential mode (tropos huparchos).
Is it fair, then, to see Logos/Tropos as akin to the Nature/Person distinction? This would make it:
(7) There is one logos in the trinity but three tropoi huparchoi?
Unfortunately, this creates problems. We would then have two persons of Jesus but only one nature!
(7*) Logos could perhaps stay as nature (or natural principle) but tropos refers not to person, but to the mode of the person’s existing.
(7a*) Every Logos has its own telos (1). There is no temporal hiatus (diastema) of any kind within the logos. Nature is already graced because it is intrinsically open to transformation.
Ad Thalassium 1: On the utility of the passions
Ad Thalassium 2: On God’s Preservation and Integration of the Universe
The logos of a thing is already established, but its development is ongoing..
(8) God “works” through the latent potentialities within the logoi.
Christ unites within himself the logoi of universals and particulars.
Ad Thalassium 22: At the End of the Ages
(9) God divided the “ages” between those before he became human and those afterwards
(9a) This is God’s “oikonomia.”
(10) Jesus is the beginning (arche), middle (mesotes), and end (telos) of all ages.
(10*) The end of the ages has come upon his in potency through faith.
Ad Thalassium 60: On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ
(11) The mystery is the preconceived goal for which everything exists (p. 124).
(11a) The Logos is the goal for which creatures received their beginning existence and to which they move [(1), (10)].
(11b) Time itself is rooted in Christ [=CCSG 22:76]
On God’s Foreknowledge: Problems in Epistemology and a potential solution
(12) Christ’s incarnation (economy) was the object of God’s foreknowledge.
Ad Thalassium 61: On the Legacy of Adam’s Transgression
We were created with a spiritual capacity for pleasure. However, Maximus has a rather unique view:
(13) Adam fell at the instant he was created [CCSG 22:85]
“This activated an unnatural pleasure through the medium of the senses.” As a result God introduced pain attendant to the pleasures.
EXCURSUS ON GNOMIC WILL
(a) It is discursive [1104A]
(b) It is deliberate [Ad Thal. 21).
(c) It is vacillating and sin perpetuates itself not via the natural volitions but through the gnomic will
(d) Earlier in his career Maximus said Jesus had a gnomic fear of death, but he stabilized his gnomic will. Later, he would deny Jesus had a gnomic will (Blowers 112 n7).
On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ
For St Maximus the cosmic mystery of Jesus Christ is nothing less than the deification of the cosmos. St Maximus will develop this argument with the Logos/logoi construction. In other words, the principles of creation (e.g., logoi) find their arche, their unifying principle in the Person of Jesus Christ. They participate proportionally in God (54).
The larger argument of this work is a running commentary on St Gregory of Nazianzus. St Gregory is refuting neo-Origenists who posit a bodily pre-fall. While few people today worry about Origenism, and many of St Maximus’ and St Gregory’s arguments will seem academic, the arguments do provide an interesting snapshot of early Christian interpretation. Simply, St Maximus interprets St Gregory to say that Christian theology teaches BECOMING MOVEMENT REST. Thus, it is impossible for a creature who has reached beatitude (full rest) to fall.
At all times St Maximus remains doggedly committed to Chalcedonian orthodoxy. For him the whole mystery of Christ is the hypostatic union of humanity and divinity (123). Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of all creation. For him incarnation is salvation. It is the lens through which to interpret the beginning and goal of the universe (33).
At the end St Maximus deals with the monothelite controversy. Christ’s prayer in the garden affirms both a human will and a divine will. Even though the human will seeks perfect concordance with the divine will, this no way negates the real human will of Christ. If Christ doesn’t have a full human will, then Christ isn’t fully man. If Christ isn’t fully man, salvation was not achieved.
EVALUATION
This is one of those great books that redefine reality. That is not a light claim. For the Incarnation has changed the very structure of reality. If everything is held together in Christ (Col. 1:16-20), and the Logos has assumed flesh/matter, then does this not suggest a dynamic interplay between reality and divine? (Of course, we reject pantheism and our comments in no way suggest that.) This is one of those books that needs to be read at least four or five times. The pressing scientific and theological issues cannot be really appreciated on the first three readings. Andrew Louth’s introduction is world class and raises a number of pressing scientific and philosophical issues to the believer. The reader is encouraged to read and meditate on St Maximus’ work while consulting the physics and alternative history of Joseph Farrell (who has also written on St Maximus) at the same time.
All created being is in motion since it aims toward some end.
This combats Origenism. Origen (de Principis I.2) and his disciples said the order of things’ existence was stability (stasis), motion (kinesis), and becoming (genesis). This means a fall before the fall. It raises questions of how one could fall from enjoying the Beautiful. Maximus countered with the following:
(2) Becoming (Genesis), Motion (Kinesis), and Stability (stasis).
(2a) Motion is always directed towards an End.
Passibility (pathos): does not refer to a change or corruption of one’s power. It is that which exists by nature in beings. For that which comes into being is susceptible to movement.
The Logos of being: participation in god as good and is the principle of being.
On willing
(3) When one is firmly attached to a good there is a voluntary transcending of oneself, a willing surrender.
(3a) Gnomic willing is a non-natural volition.
Maximus then moves away from discussing a fall from Origen’s henad.
(4) The One Logos is the Many Logoi (p. 54 = [1077C]).
This statement is the perfection of what all ancient philosophy tried to be. Each thing remains distinct (Gk. asunchtos) from everything else. Yet Maximus also wants to say they are the one Logos. How does he do that?
(4*) The logoi are anchored within the Logos (55; Col. 1:15-17; Rom. 11:36)
(4’) The Logos multiplies the logoi after himself (and the logos of a thing precedes its existence).
(5) The Logos recapitulates all things in himself (Eph. 1:10).
Does this mean all things return back to the Logos? In so brilliantly cutting off Origenism has Maximus allowed Origen a return via apocastasis?
(5’) Since all things participate in God, and they participate proportionally, not all will have the same ending.
(5*) Thus, Maximus doesn’t posit an Origenist apocastasis.
The logos of our being pre-exists in God [1080C].
(6) All created things develop and are defined and limited by their logoi.
Ambiguum 8
Thesis: Bodily existence is within the realm of flux and chaos and needs the Creator to order it. God changes the atakton into the eutakton..
Logos/Tropos distinction. The logos is the principle of a thing. The tropos is the mode of existence. The Logos has innovated human nature not in its natural principle (logos phuseos) but in its post-lapsarian existential mode (tropos huparchos).
Is it fair, then, to see Logos/Tropos as akin to the Nature/Person distinction? This would make it:
(7) There is one logos in the trinity but three tropoi huparchoi?
Unfortunately, this creates problems. We would then have two persons of Jesus but only one nature!
(7*) Logos could perhaps stay as nature (or natural principle) but tropos refers not to person, but to the mode of the person’s existing.
(7a*) Every Logos has its own telos (1). There is no temporal hiatus (diastema) of any kind within the logos. Nature is already graced because it is intrinsically open to transformation.
Ad Thalassium 1: On the utility of the passions
Ad Thalassium 2: On God’s Preservation and Integration of the Universe
The logos of a thing is already established, but its development is ongoing..
(8) God “works” through the latent potentialities within the logoi.
Christ unites within himself the logoi of universals and particulars.
Ad Thalassium 22: At the End of the Ages
(9) God divided the “ages” between those before he became human and those afterwards
(9a) This is God’s “oikonomia.”
(10) Jesus is the beginning (arche), middle (mesotes), and end (telos) of all ages.
(10*) The end of the ages has come upon his in potency through faith.
Ad Thalassium 60: On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ
(11) The mystery is the preconceived goal for which everything exists (p. 124).
(11a) The Logos is the goal for which creatures received their beginning existence and to which they move [(1), (10)].
(11b) Time itself is rooted in Christ [=CCSG 22:76]
On God’s Foreknowledge: Problems in Epistemology and a potential solution
(12) Christ’s incarnation (economy) was the object of God’s foreknowledge.
Ad Thalassium 61: On the Legacy of Adam’s Transgression
We were created with a spiritual capacity for pleasure. However, Maximus has a rather unique view:
(13) Adam fell at the instant he was created [CCSG 22:85]
“This activated an unnatural pleasure through the medium of the senses.” As a result God introduced pain attendant to the pleasures.
EXCURSUS ON GNOMIC WILL
(a) It is discursive [1104A]
(b) It is deliberate [Ad Thal. 21).
(c) It is vacillating and sin perpetuates itself not via the natural volitions but through the gnomic will
(d) Earlier in his career Maximus said Jesus had a gnomic fear of death, but he stabilized his gnomic will. Later, he would deny Jesus had a gnomic will (Blowers 112 n7).
On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ
For St Maximus the cosmic mystery of Jesus Christ is nothing less than the deification of the cosmos. St Maximus will develop this argument with the Logos/logoi construction. In other words, the principles of creation (e.g., logoi) find their arche, their unifying principle in the Person of Jesus Christ. They participate proportionally in God (54).
The larger argument of this work is a running commentary on St Gregory of Nazianzus. St Gregory is refuting neo-Origenists who posit a bodily pre-fall. While few people today worry about Origenism, and many of St Maximus’ and St Gregory’s arguments will seem academic, the arguments do provide an interesting snapshot of early Christian interpretation. Simply, St Maximus interprets St Gregory to say that Christian theology teaches BECOMING MOVEMENT REST. Thus, it is impossible for a creature who has reached beatitude (full rest) to fall.
At all times St Maximus remains doggedly committed to Chalcedonian orthodoxy. For him the whole mystery of Christ is the hypostatic union of humanity and divinity (123). Christ is the beginning, middle, and end of all creation. For him incarnation is salvation. It is the lens through which to interpret the beginning and goal of the universe (33).
At the end St Maximus deals with the monothelite controversy. Christ’s prayer in the garden affirms both a human will and a divine will. Even though the human will seeks perfect concordance with the divine will, this no way negates the real human will of Christ. If Christ doesn’t have a full human will, then Christ isn’t fully man. If Christ isn’t fully man, salvation was not achieved.
EVALUATION
This is one of those great books that redefine reality. That is not a light claim. For the Incarnation has changed the very structure of reality. If everything is held together in Christ (Col. 1:16-20), and the Logos has assumed flesh/matter, then does this not suggest a dynamic interplay between reality and divine? (Of course, we reject pantheism and our comments in no way suggest that.) This is one of those books that needs to be read at least four or five times. The pressing scientific and theological issues cannot be really appreciated on the first three readings. Andrew Louth’s introduction is world class and raises a number of pressing scientific and philosophical issues to the believer. The reader is encouraged to read and meditate on St Maximus’ work while consulting the physics and alternative history of Joseph Farrell (who has also written on St Maximus) at the same time.
October 6, 2020
If I were to subtitle this beautiful book, it would be the Incarnation as the motive for history. So beautiful.
I’m not a scholar or a philosopher, but a mystic with a soft spot for church history. I admit I bought this book solely based on its title. Over the past year have been trying to acquaint/reacquaint myself with the church fathers—whom almost no one in my tribe reads.
Recently I had a number of dreams and visions of Christ that overwhelmed me with His spectacular cosmic all-encompassing beauty. Since “cosmic” was just about the only word I had to describe how I experienced Him, for funsies I googled “cosmic Christ.” I came up with a few titles, some of which I’d heard of before, and loads of psychedelic images—all of which reconcile Christ as a synonym of consciousness or Buddha and whatnot. The “Christ” in these representations feels more like a nebulous demiurge energy of universal “being” as separate from an actual person. And I am encountering a real person.
In the mix this little title caught my eye. It’s appropriate, since Maximus’ sophisticated incarnational theology was particularly squared off at the church’s latest gnostic flare-up, this time in the form of Origenist ideas about the body being a state of being that Adam and therefore all humanity “slipped into” as a form of punishment. Separating Christ from Christ is probably the longest running heresy out there, and I so enjoy how the Eastern fathers press into the mystical tension of His two natures—fully human person, fully God.
This book is a selection of several of his writings, so you get a pretty good overview of his beautiful Christology and his theology on the two wills of Christ, which he was famous for. My favorite chapter was indeed the “Cosmic Mystery of Christ” (in the original it is Ad Thalassium 60), in which Maximus explores the question of how Christ could be foreknown if he was eternal. It goes beyond mere metaphysics into pure theological poetry.
I’m new to reading these fathers and so that means I’m really unfamiliar with a lot of the philosophical terms and what they mean (being, well-being and non-being was one such confusion), but that just meant I had some homework to do. I loved the hermeneutic style, and way of offering multiple interpretations of the same scripture—much more midrashic than contemporary Protestant exegesis. Some of it was downright hilarious—the exegesis on Jonah had some insightful parts and others just eccentric and slightly anti-semitic. I also toss the creeping dualisms... the emphasis on asceticism as a path to deification (which, thank goodness, he doesn’t obsess on as much as other Fathers do) and his clear belief that procreation through sex was part of the human fall.
Overall, will read again. I love knowing the mystical wonder that is Christ. My awe never tires.
I’m not a scholar or a philosopher, but a mystic with a soft spot for church history. I admit I bought this book solely based on its title. Over the past year have been trying to acquaint/reacquaint myself with the church fathers—whom almost no one in my tribe reads.
Recently I had a number of dreams and visions of Christ that overwhelmed me with His spectacular cosmic all-encompassing beauty. Since “cosmic” was just about the only word I had to describe how I experienced Him, for funsies I googled “cosmic Christ.” I came up with a few titles, some of which I’d heard of before, and loads of psychedelic images—all of which reconcile Christ as a synonym of consciousness or Buddha and whatnot. The “Christ” in these representations feels more like a nebulous demiurge energy of universal “being” as separate from an actual person. And I am encountering a real person.
In the mix this little title caught my eye. It’s appropriate, since Maximus’ sophisticated incarnational theology was particularly squared off at the church’s latest gnostic flare-up, this time in the form of Origenist ideas about the body being a state of being that Adam and therefore all humanity “slipped into” as a form of punishment. Separating Christ from Christ is probably the longest running heresy out there, and I so enjoy how the Eastern fathers press into the mystical tension of His two natures—fully human person, fully God.
This book is a selection of several of his writings, so you get a pretty good overview of his beautiful Christology and his theology on the two wills of Christ, which he was famous for. My favorite chapter was indeed the “Cosmic Mystery of Christ” (in the original it is Ad Thalassium 60), in which Maximus explores the question of how Christ could be foreknown if he was eternal. It goes beyond mere metaphysics into pure theological poetry.
I’m new to reading these fathers and so that means I’m really unfamiliar with a lot of the philosophical terms and what they mean (being, well-being and non-being was one such confusion), but that just meant I had some homework to do. I loved the hermeneutic style, and way of offering multiple interpretations of the same scripture—much more midrashic than contemporary Protestant exegesis. Some of it was downright hilarious—the exegesis on Jonah had some insightful parts and others just eccentric and slightly anti-semitic. I also toss the creeping dualisms... the emphasis on asceticism as a path to deification (which, thank goodness, he doesn’t obsess on as much as other Fathers do) and his clear belief that procreation through sex was part of the human fall.
Overall, will read again. I love knowing the mystical wonder that is Christ. My awe never tires.
January 24, 2023
Maximus the Confessor is one of my favorite spiritual masters. I’m no professional historian or theologian, but I have found nourishment of both mind and spirit in digging into his writings. He is one of those ancient Christians who’s writing has deeply impacted me in recent years - Gregory of Nyssa, Origen, Isaac the Syrian, Pseudo-Dionysius, Julian of Norwich.
If you’re looking for spiritual reading, from a Christian perspective, you ought to check out Maximus. I should note, depending who comes across this review, that “Christian” means a lot of things. Maximus is a far cry from the pop-Christianity you might find on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. Most simply, he’s much more Eastern than Western, and thus offers quite a different perspective than Western Christians, especially evangelicals, are used to.
This book is a selection of his texts. I read the full Ambigua a few years ago (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), but I’d recommend starting here as well as with his collections found in the Philokalia (such as the 400 chapters on Love).
Overall, Maximus is certainly not for everyone. A beginner in Christian spirituality may be lost and confused. But if you take the time, there’s definitely a lot here to chew on.
If you’re looking for spiritual reading, from a Christian perspective, you ought to check out Maximus. I should note, depending who comes across this review, that “Christian” means a lot of things. Maximus is a far cry from the pop-Christianity you might find on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. Most simply, he’s much more Eastern than Western, and thus offers quite a different perspective than Western Christians, especially evangelicals, are used to.
This book is a selection of his texts. I read the full Ambigua a few years ago (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), but I’d recommend starting here as well as with his collections found in the Philokalia (such as the 400 chapters on Love).
Overall, Maximus is certainly not for everyone. A beginner in Christian spirituality may be lost and confused. But if you take the time, there’s definitely a lot here to chew on.
April 24, 2023
Fascinating. Compelling consideration of the incarnation in relationship to human nature. One of the more challenging volumes in this patristics series for me. Benefited from the introductory essays in my reading, but felt the need for more clarifying guidance in Maximus’ unique usage of different terms. Worthwhile investment of time and energy.
October 4, 2016
Collection of various writings of Maximus, some of which are better than others. The last chapter, "On the Two Wills of Christ in the Agony of Gethsemane," is worth the price of the book.
November 23, 2021
Discerning the worldview of a writer from centuries past can often times feel like wandering through an old abandoned house. The reader wades through unfamiliar ideas like dark rooms, trying only to make some sense of the place. Time has obscured their value, made them dusty or stale; the old ideas seem pale and
out of place in the context of modernity. In the case of the book On the Cosmic Mystery of Christ however, the ancient content manages to maintain its warmth and life. They are like hallways in a mansion whose interweaving doors fractal out into more glorious and brightly lit expanses of unrelenting grandeur. Considering that the scope of these short writings encompass Christ's redemption of the entirety of the cosmos, the grandeur must be absolute.
Presented in the collection of writings On the Cosmic Mystery of a Christ (SVS Press) is an introduction to the thought and theology of St Maximus the Confessor. It is difficult to overstate the influence of St Maximus on Orthodox Christianity. Whether considering his understanding of Christ as Logos, his emphasis on the ascetic life or his defense of the Chalcedonian creed, all permeat the Orthodox faith in both theology and praxis. This book introduces several of these doctrines using St Maximus's own writings and offers a well-rounded glimpse into some of his most significant contributions to the Church. While there is much that can be said about each of these, I will limit this review to three notable aspects of St Maximus's theology introduced in this book: cosmology, soteriology and biblical typology.
The first chapter of this book establishes the major theme of St Maximus's cosmology with Ambiguum 7, entitled On The Beginning and End of Rational Creatures. While writing against Origenism, he roots his argument in the context of both cosmological and teleological terms, exploring the dynamic between Christ, mankind and the created world; Christ the Logos has given the objects in creation their own logoi (reasons) so that the man imbued with grace can search for Christ in the created world and find Him there, uncovering the logos hidden in each created thing. From Christ comes the many "reasons" that exist in the world towards Whom the rational man moves, just as He is the beauty in the world for Whom mankind longs. There is therefore a natural link between the deification of man and the humanization of the world, for as Christ unites man to Himself by grace, so to does man unite the earth to himself by the grace received in him from Christ.
This insight into the cosmology of St Maximus directly establishes another doctrine relating to soteriology: sin is always a movement toward irrationality and non-existence. Inherent in the soteriology of St Maximus is the movement either toward God, or away from Him; toward reason or irrational passions. If the Divine Logos is the ultimate truth and source of existence and reality itself, then the path of sin is the grasping onto mere fantasy, a desire from which fulfillment is an impossibility and whose end is a non-reality. In this expounded Dionysian dichotomy, man can either participate in Christ unto full union with Him- "being made God by God" (by grace, not by nature; see Ambig. 7, pg 36) or else his participation is in death which is nothingness (see Ad Thal 64, footnote 21). This directly imitates the first sin of Adam, where the fruit he ate in disobedience contained in itself no fulfillment in reality, and therefore led to death.
This dynamic between following Adam unto death or Christ as the Second Adam unto life highlights another theme in the thought of St Maximus- his understanding of the redemptive work of Christ as something particular rather than something general. Christ's life has redeemed each aspect of humanity in Himself (Ad Thal. 21), entering into each individual corruption of mankind and purifying it perfectly. St Maximus explains, for example, that when Christ Christ weeps in the Garden of Gethsemane, He is Himself facing the very human fear of death and simultaneously conquering this fear through obedience to the will of the Father through His own divine will (Opus. 64). It is finally in Ad Thalassium 61 where St Maximus describes this kind of particular redemption in which Christ enters into the same activity of Adam, but accomplishes perfectly what Adam failed to do and by doing so unravels sin and corruption in every place it was established:
Indeed, just as Adam’s life of pleasure became the mother of death and corruption, so too our Lord’s death for Adam’s sake, being free of the pleasure inherited from Adam, became the father of eternal life. (Pg 91)
Lastly, this book introduces the anagogical hermeneutic St Maximus utilizes to understand the Holy Scriptures. In Ad Thalassium 64, St Maximus writes an explanation on the story of Jonah. It is here we see his understanding of the Scriptures as allowing a variety of interpretations in its similarities to various types. Jonah bears in himself mystically the figure of Adam, leaving the paradise of Joppa and "has descended, as though into a sea, into the misery of the present life, and been plunged into the chaotic and roaring waters of attachment to material objects." Jonah also mystically represents Christ, willingly submitting himself to the sea, as Christ "entered into the sea of life like ours" and went silent to death as Jonah did to the fish. Finally, Jonah represents the Jews who were embittered when the gentile church- the city of Nineveh- repented and bore in themselves the blessings of the Lord. It is this kind of manifold interpretation, allowing the Word of God to come alive in symbol and type, which reveals St Maximus's view of how the Holy Scriptures relate to world and the Person of Christ as the Divine Logos.
Notes on Translation:
A gift of this particular book is in the introduction and footnotes that firmly root the reader in the worldview of St Maximus. Paul M. Blowers and Robert Louis Wilken write a thorough introduction that orients the reader with the themes and ideas found throughout the book. The footnotes help explain what St Maximus means in particularly difficult passages or they will provide a summarized explanation his doctrine when it is referenced in the work. Included in the footnotes as well are references to papers and books which delve more deeply into the thought of St Maximus from the foremost experts on the topic, such as Louth, Staniloae and Blowers himself. Lastly, using the Greek transliteration for the terms Logos and logoi throughout the book was an excellent publishing decision given how St Maximus uses these terms in a specific way.
That being said, this book does not make for easy reading. While the translators managed to make it as accessible to the layman to some degree, it seems to be only to the extent in which nothing of the original ideas would be lost. The reader will also need to have some basic understanding of some Aristotelian/Platonic concepts and some larger theological themes. Lossky's Mystical Theology may be a helpful primer to understand some of the concepts discussed in this book.
Conclusion:
Many Orthodox Christians have wandered the halls of this mansion that is the Confessor's cosmology and found that the doors therein open into their own Christian experience, their understanding of Scripture and even into the tangible world outside their window. This is perhaps why many Christians have been returning to the writings of St Maximus for a comprehensive worldview that modernity has largely neglected. We have even seen fragments of these ideas gaining popularity outside the context of the church, such as in the work of Jonathan Pageua who has reinvigorated the concept of a world revealed in symbols. And yet, the postmodern world finds these concepts contemptible since beauty and meaning only slips through their grasp. They believe it to be a thing of children's stories and yet they envy the man who has seen the truth of the world himself and from it received life, purpose and joy. For this reason St Maximus's On the Cosmic Mystery of Christ is more relevant than ever, not only because of its remarkable theological strides and cohesive arguments, but because it helps explain the universe from a perspective that the modern world is wholly lacking- one that shines as intuitively true of our shared human experience of reality.
out of place in the context of modernity. In the case of the book On the Cosmic Mystery of Christ however, the ancient content manages to maintain its warmth and life. They are like hallways in a mansion whose interweaving doors fractal out into more glorious and brightly lit expanses of unrelenting grandeur. Considering that the scope of these short writings encompass Christ's redemption of the entirety of the cosmos, the grandeur must be absolute.
Presented in the collection of writings On the Cosmic Mystery of a Christ (SVS Press) is an introduction to the thought and theology of St Maximus the Confessor. It is difficult to overstate the influence of St Maximus on Orthodox Christianity. Whether considering his understanding of Christ as Logos, his emphasis on the ascetic life or his defense of the Chalcedonian creed, all permeat the Orthodox faith in both theology and praxis. This book introduces several of these doctrines using St Maximus's own writings and offers a well-rounded glimpse into some of his most significant contributions to the Church. While there is much that can be said about each of these, I will limit this review to three notable aspects of St Maximus's theology introduced in this book: cosmology, soteriology and biblical typology.
The first chapter of this book establishes the major theme of St Maximus's cosmology with Ambiguum 7, entitled On The Beginning and End of Rational Creatures. While writing against Origenism, he roots his argument in the context of both cosmological and teleological terms, exploring the dynamic between Christ, mankind and the created world; Christ the Logos has given the objects in creation their own logoi (reasons) so that the man imbued with grace can search for Christ in the created world and find Him there, uncovering the logos hidden in each created thing. From Christ comes the many "reasons" that exist in the world towards Whom the rational man moves, just as He is the beauty in the world for Whom mankind longs. There is therefore a natural link between the deification of man and the humanization of the world, for as Christ unites man to Himself by grace, so to does man unite the earth to himself by the grace received in him from Christ.
This insight into the cosmology of St Maximus directly establishes another doctrine relating to soteriology: sin is always a movement toward irrationality and non-existence. Inherent in the soteriology of St Maximus is the movement either toward God, or away from Him; toward reason or irrational passions. If the Divine Logos is the ultimate truth and source of existence and reality itself, then the path of sin is the grasping onto mere fantasy, a desire from which fulfillment is an impossibility and whose end is a non-reality. In this expounded Dionysian dichotomy, man can either participate in Christ unto full union with Him- "being made God by God" (by grace, not by nature; see Ambig. 7, pg 36) or else his participation is in death which is nothingness (see Ad Thal 64, footnote 21). This directly imitates the first sin of Adam, where the fruit he ate in disobedience contained in itself no fulfillment in reality, and therefore led to death.
This dynamic between following Adam unto death or Christ as the Second Adam unto life highlights another theme in the thought of St Maximus- his understanding of the redemptive work of Christ as something particular rather than something general. Christ's life has redeemed each aspect of humanity in Himself (Ad Thal. 21), entering into each individual corruption of mankind and purifying it perfectly. St Maximus explains, for example, that when Christ Christ weeps in the Garden of Gethsemane, He is Himself facing the very human fear of death and simultaneously conquering this fear through obedience to the will of the Father through His own divine will (Opus. 64). It is finally in Ad Thalassium 61 where St Maximus describes this kind of particular redemption in which Christ enters into the same activity of Adam, but accomplishes perfectly what Adam failed to do and by doing so unravels sin and corruption in every place it was established:
Indeed, just as Adam’s life of pleasure became the mother of death and corruption, so too our Lord’s death for Adam’s sake, being free of the pleasure inherited from Adam, became the father of eternal life. (Pg 91)
Lastly, this book introduces the anagogical hermeneutic St Maximus utilizes to understand the Holy Scriptures. In Ad Thalassium 64, St Maximus writes an explanation on the story of Jonah. It is here we see his understanding of the Scriptures as allowing a variety of interpretations in its similarities to various types. Jonah bears in himself mystically the figure of Adam, leaving the paradise of Joppa and "has descended, as though into a sea, into the misery of the present life, and been plunged into the chaotic and roaring waters of attachment to material objects." Jonah also mystically represents Christ, willingly submitting himself to the sea, as Christ "entered into the sea of life like ours" and went silent to death as Jonah did to the fish. Finally, Jonah represents the Jews who were embittered when the gentile church- the city of Nineveh- repented and bore in themselves the blessings of the Lord. It is this kind of manifold interpretation, allowing the Word of God to come alive in symbol and type, which reveals St Maximus's view of how the Holy Scriptures relate to world and the Person of Christ as the Divine Logos.
Notes on Translation:
A gift of this particular book is in the introduction and footnotes that firmly root the reader in the worldview of St Maximus. Paul M. Blowers and Robert Louis Wilken write a thorough introduction that orients the reader with the themes and ideas found throughout the book. The footnotes help explain what St Maximus means in particularly difficult passages or they will provide a summarized explanation his doctrine when it is referenced in the work. Included in the footnotes as well are references to papers and books which delve more deeply into the thought of St Maximus from the foremost experts on the topic, such as Louth, Staniloae and Blowers himself. Lastly, using the Greek transliteration for the terms Logos and logoi throughout the book was an excellent publishing decision given how St Maximus uses these terms in a specific way.
That being said, this book does not make for easy reading. While the translators managed to make it as accessible to the layman to some degree, it seems to be only to the extent in which nothing of the original ideas would be lost. The reader will also need to have some basic understanding of some Aristotelian/Platonic concepts and some larger theological themes. Lossky's Mystical Theology may be a helpful primer to understand some of the concepts discussed in this book.
Conclusion:
Many Orthodox Christians have wandered the halls of this mansion that is the Confessor's cosmology and found that the doors therein open into their own Christian experience, their understanding of Scripture and even into the tangible world outside their window. This is perhaps why many Christians have been returning to the writings of St Maximus for a comprehensive worldview that modernity has largely neglected. We have even seen fragments of these ideas gaining popularity outside the context of the church, such as in the work of Jonathan Pageua who has reinvigorated the concept of a world revealed in symbols. And yet, the postmodern world finds these concepts contemptible since beauty and meaning only slips through their grasp. They believe it to be a thing of children's stories and yet they envy the man who has seen the truth of the world himself and from it received life, purpose and joy. For this reason St Maximus's On the Cosmic Mystery of Christ is more relevant than ever, not only because of its remarkable theological strides and cohesive arguments, but because it helps explain the universe from a perspective that the modern world is wholly lacking- one that shines as intuitively true of our shared human experience of reality.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2024
Excellent translation of one of the Byzantine fathers.
True to Patristic form, the very best bit of this work is Maximus' analogical exegesis of the Jonah narrative. He assigns to each person or city or plant its spiritual significance - Jonah is the Jewish people, Nineveh the gentile church, the shade plant is the observance of the law, etc. - and then concludes that the Christological figure of the story, is in fact the worm. "The Lord mounted his flesh on the fish-hook of his divinity as bait for the Devil's deceit, so that, the Devil would take his flesh into his mouth and quiver convulsive on the fish hook of the Lord's divinity, and by virtue of the sacred flesh of the Logos, completely vomit the Lord's human nature once he had swallowed it...It is this worm that smote the gourd plant and caused it to whither- or in other words, who abolished the observance of the law like a mere shadow." Glorious.
Although I prefer ascetic practices of the body to ascetic theologies of the body (this work was [ironically?] too Aristotelian for me), Maximus did challenge some of my oversimplifications and provided a wonderful repudiation of Origin's teaching on pre-existent souls. "It is inconceivable to speak of the soul and the body except in relation to each other. It is only as they come together to form a particular person that they exist."
True to Patristic form, the very best bit of this work is Maximus' analogical exegesis of the Jonah narrative. He assigns to each person or city or plant its spiritual significance - Jonah is the Jewish people, Nineveh the gentile church, the shade plant is the observance of the law, etc. - and then concludes that the Christological figure of the story, is in fact the worm. "The Lord mounted his flesh on the fish-hook of his divinity as bait for the Devil's deceit, so that, the Devil would take his flesh into his mouth and quiver convulsive on the fish hook of the Lord's divinity, and by virtue of the sacred flesh of the Logos, completely vomit the Lord's human nature once he had swallowed it...It is this worm that smote the gourd plant and caused it to whither- or in other words, who abolished the observance of the law like a mere shadow." Glorious.
Although I prefer ascetic practices of the body to ascetic theologies of the body (this work was [ironically?] too Aristotelian for me), Maximus did challenge some of my oversimplifications and provided a wonderful repudiation of Origin's teaching on pre-existent souls. "It is inconceivable to speak of the soul and the body except in relation to each other. It is only as they come together to form a particular person that they exist."
October 4, 2022
Patristic christology meets its apex in Maximus’ theology. Both creative and visionary, critically building upon the earlier tradition, what kind of mind could masterly synthesize such thought? Like Barth, we have in Maximus’ theology a ‘cathedral of the mind,’ albeit delivered in a more concise manner. We live in the watershed. Cosmological in scope, the whole of Maximus’ theological project turns on the incarnation and, like a fractal, everything is touched, nothing left unshifted. Maximus’ scriptural exegesis scrapes against the grain of modern methods and interpretation, but if one can recognize the principles by which he operates, the coherence of his thought is something to behold. It remains for those who would like to retain the substance, scope, and vision of his chalcedonian christology to see if it is even possible to uphold the edifice without its foundation.
August 28, 2025
Many topics were covered in this collection from St. Maximus. Giga mind sometimes is hard to follow for the slow boys out there.
An interesting illustration in his commentary on Jonah. Tying it to the Harrowing of Hades.
"The Lord mounted his flesh on the fish-hook of his divinity as bait for the Devil's deceit, so that, as the insatiable spiritual serpent, the Devil would take his flesh into his mouth (since its nature is easily overcome) and quiver convulsively on the hook of the Lord's divinity, and, by virtue of the sacred flesh of the Logos, completely vomit the Lord's human nature once he had swallowed it. As a result, just as the Devil formerly baited man with the hope of divinity, and swallowed him, so too the Devil himself would be baited precisely with humanity's fleshly garb; and afterward he would vomit man, who had been deceived by the expectation of becoming divine, the Devil himself having been deceived by the expectation of becoming human."
An interesting illustration in his commentary on Jonah. Tying it to the Harrowing of Hades.
"The Lord mounted his flesh on the fish-hook of his divinity as bait for the Devil's deceit, so that, as the insatiable spiritual serpent, the Devil would take his flesh into his mouth (since its nature is easily overcome) and quiver convulsively on the hook of the Lord's divinity, and, by virtue of the sacred flesh of the Logos, completely vomit the Lord's human nature once he had swallowed it. As a result, just as the Devil formerly baited man with the hope of divinity, and swallowed him, so too the Devil himself would be baited precisely with humanity's fleshly garb; and afterward he would vomit man, who had been deceived by the expectation of becoming divine, the Devil himself having been deceived by the expectation of becoming human."
January 3, 2024
This book was one of the wildest, most confusing books I have ever read. However, it was also one of the most theologically rich and beautiful books I have read. Maximus sets out to show the reader how Christ impacts the cosmos, every inch of the universe to every minute detail of the human nature. This deeply philosophical book makes me appreciate the greater contours of theological truth. Philosophy is truly the handmaiden of theology, read great books like this to understand the depths of God’s truths.
Read
January 29, 2024I have heard this book is brilliant, but I big time struggled to understand Maximus’ cosmic theology. I am going to need to read it again down the road to be able to give it a rating.
February 20, 2024
commentary on Jonah got me like 😳😨🤯🤯🔥💯😭😭❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
May 13, 2021
Like us, the Church Fathers are a mixed bag, with moments of greatness and then (to us) obvious lapses into greek paganism (e.g. sexual reproduction is a result of the Fall!).
Here however is one of the great moments in Mad Max (as he was called back then) .Maximus tells us that the Incarnation was always the motive of history, simply because there is no other way for God's purpose to be brought to fruitition, other than in Christ.
"[Christ was] like a blameless and spotless lamb, who was foreordained from the foundation of the world." Now the question is: St. Maximus first briefly summarizes the true teaching about the Person of Christ, and then proceeds: "This is the blessed end, on account of which everything was created. This is the Divine purpose, which was thought of before the beginning of Creation, and which we call an intended fulfillment. All creation exists on account of this fulfillment and yet the fulfillment itself exists because of nothing that was created. Since God had this end in full view, he produced the natures of things. This is truly the fulfillment of Providence and of planning. Through this there is a recapitulation to God of those created by Him. This is the mystery circumscribing all ages, the awesome plan of God, super-infinite and infinitely pre-existing the ages. The Messenger, who is in essence Himself the Word of God, became man on account of this fulfillment. And it may be said that it was He Himself Who restored the manifest innermost depths of the goodness handed down by the Father; and He revealed the fulfillment in Himself, by which creation has won the beginning of true existence. For on account of Christ, that is to say the mystery concerning Christ, all time and that which is in time have found the beginning and the end of their existence in Christ. For before time there was secretly purposed a union of the ages, of the determined and the Indeterminate, of the measurable and the Immeasurable, of the finite and Infinity, of the creation and the Creator, of motion and rest — a union which was made manifest in Christ during these last times."
Here however is one of the great moments in Mad Max (as he was called back then) .Maximus tells us that the Incarnation was always the motive of history, simply because there is no other way for God's purpose to be brought to fruitition, other than in Christ.
"[Christ was] like a blameless and spotless lamb, who was foreordained from the foundation of the world." Now the question is: St. Maximus first briefly summarizes the true teaching about the Person of Christ, and then proceeds: "This is the blessed end, on account of which everything was created. This is the Divine purpose, which was thought of before the beginning of Creation, and which we call an intended fulfillment. All creation exists on account of this fulfillment and yet the fulfillment itself exists because of nothing that was created. Since God had this end in full view, he produced the natures of things. This is truly the fulfillment of Providence and of planning. Through this there is a recapitulation to God of those created by Him. This is the mystery circumscribing all ages, the awesome plan of God, super-infinite and infinitely pre-existing the ages. The Messenger, who is in essence Himself the Word of God, became man on account of this fulfillment. And it may be said that it was He Himself Who restored the manifest innermost depths of the goodness handed down by the Father; and He revealed the fulfillment in Himself, by which creation has won the beginning of true existence. For on account of Christ, that is to say the mystery concerning Christ, all time and that which is in time have found the beginning and the end of their existence in Christ. For before time there was secretly purposed a union of the ages, of the determined and the Indeterminate, of the measurable and the Immeasurable, of the finite and Infinity, of the creation and the Creator, of motion and rest — a union which was made manifest in Christ during these last times."
April 9, 2023
Maximus is a beautiful writer whose theology is so meticulously formulated. The collection of writings chosen in On the Cosmic Mystery makes me want to pick up a full collection of his writings.
A lot of work here is extremely dense and I would have had no hope of understanding it if I had read it even a month earlier. You really need to understand the philosophical and theological context that he is writing in.
It’s very obvious throughout these writings that Gregory Nazinansius is Maximus’ hero and Origen is his opp. It was very interesting to see that and makes me want to read Gregory more and more.
A lot of work here is extremely dense and I would have had no hope of understanding it if I had read it even a month earlier. You really need to understand the philosophical and theological context that he is writing in.
It’s very obvious throughout these writings that Gregory Nazinansius is Maximus’ hero and Origen is his opp. It was very interesting to see that and makes me want to read Gregory more and more.
August 7, 2017
"Theology is the aspiration to intimate knowledge of the Holy Trinity that must always remain grounded in, and integrated with, the contemplative and ascetic life of the Christian."
St. Maximus the Confessor is writing about this, and through his writing drives you toward this. Excellent little work.
St. Maximus the Confessor is writing about this, and through his writing drives you toward this. Excellent little work.
November 24, 2024
An enriching read that helps you see God's word and the reality of the Scriptures from a different light and perspective. So far, incredibly encouraging.
November 3, 2025
obligatory theology reading of 2025
You know, one awesome thing about reading pre-scholastic theology is that you don't have to put up with nearly as many sophistical distinctions cooked up by some analytic philosophy nerd in a friar's habit. This applies to St. Maximus, for example, who hasn't lost the plot yet. He defends the dependent co-origination of the body and soul (denial of the pre-existence of soul, something apparently taught by so-called Origenists) and clarifies the nature of Christ's "assumption" of the consequences that follow from the Adam's act of radical evil. In the process, he offers what I take to be a surprisingly *dialectical* account. Call it cunning of divine reason. Also, I think Mr. Confessor is definitely going somewhere with the distinction between nature and mode as regards divine innovation. So it may turn out that God doesn't have to "suspend the laws of nature" at all in order to effect miracles. The writing is quite charismatic and accessible, provided one consults the footnotes of course.
You know, one awesome thing about reading pre-scholastic theology is that you don't have to put up with nearly as many sophistical distinctions cooked up by some analytic philosophy nerd in a friar's habit. This applies to St. Maximus, for example, who hasn't lost the plot yet. He defends the dependent co-origination of the body and soul (denial of the pre-existence of soul, something apparently taught by so-called Origenists) and clarifies the nature of Christ's "assumption" of the consequences that follow from the Adam's act of radical evil. In the process, he offers what I take to be a surprisingly *dialectical* account. Call it cunning of divine reason. Also, I think Mr. Confessor is definitely going somewhere with the distinction between nature and mode as regards divine innovation. So it may turn out that God doesn't have to "suspend the laws of nature" at all in order to effect miracles. The writing is quite charismatic and accessible, provided one consults the footnotes of course.
July 25, 2024
Of the many (and I mean MANY) quotes I could’ve put on here, this one happened to be towards the end of the book and also one I found particularly edifying.
“He (Christ) did not refuse to take our condemnation on Himself, and indeed, the more He Himself became a man by nature in His incarnation, the more He defied us by grace, so that we would not only learn naturally to care for one another, and spiritually to love others as ourselves, but also like God to be concerned for others more than for ourselves, even to the point of proving that love to others by being ready to die voluntarily and virtuously for others. For as the Lord says, ‘There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’ (Jn 15:13).”
Great book. Check out Maximus if you’d like your mind blown
“He (Christ) did not refuse to take our condemnation on Himself, and indeed, the more He Himself became a man by nature in His incarnation, the more He defied us by grace, so that we would not only learn naturally to care for one another, and spiritually to love others as ourselves, but also like God to be concerned for others more than for ourselves, even to the point of proving that love to others by being ready to die voluntarily and virtuously for others. For as the Lord says, ‘There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’ (Jn 15:13).”
Great book. Check out Maximus if you’d like your mind blown
October 3, 2022
“When it is wholly embraced it no longer wishes to be embraced at all by itself but is suffused by that which embraces it. In the same way air is illumined by light and iron is fully enflamed by fire” St Maximus the Confessor on the mystical union of the soul seeks with God.
This book is so excellent and so profound although I feel sort of like I have read it already before this time because I have been listening to Jonathon Pageau for so long and he has embodied so much of St. Maximus’s ideas.
This book is so excellent and so profound although I feel sort of like I have read it already before this time because I have been listening to Jonathon Pageau for so long and he has embodied so much of St. Maximus’s ideas.
September 7, 2018
Some great Christology, but not so great exegesis.
June 30, 2022
Stunning. Likely the beginning of a lifelong journey into the cosmic scale of Maximus’ theological vision.
October 8, 2025
Wow, this was both great spiritual reading and great theology! Which, for St. Maximus and I would hope more generally, should be tied together anyway. I’ve got to read more of his work.
September 25, 2025
St. Maximus is a genius. His doctrine of the logoi is fascinating. More theologians need to pick him up & comb his insights into the divine scriptures. I most likely will be picking this up again in the future. Also, the cover is so beautiful.
July 22, 2023
Incredible. Mind-melting depth and complexity in such a small book. His paralleling of the incarnation and Adam is comprehensive and subtle, as well as his discussion of mode, nature, operation, and various other concepts following Chalcedon.
June 15, 2019
Phenomenal. This collection represents a number of works by Maximus primarily from Ad Ambiguum and Ad Thalassium. There are several issues that come up in this collection. The first is a parsing of out an ontology of universals vs particulars. Maximus analyzes this discussion in terms of logoi/logos. All created things have patterns of logoi which are located in a type of logos that the object participates in. Every logos in the created universe originates in the Logos. I understand Maximus to be defending a type of realism in which attributes are *in* God as the Logos.
The second major concern here is a discussion of the body, the soul, and how these relate to becoming/rest. Maximus argues that we are in a state of becoming in virtue of being created and our proper telos is to rest in God's divine uncreated grace. This is in contrast to Origen's view that we originally existed in a state of rest with God and then fell into a state of becoming. For Origen, the body was created precisely for the fall. Maximus finds this idea abhorrent, clearly articulating a view in which the body and soul are both parts of the human person and that both come into being simultaneously into time. There is no pre-existing soul that enters a body on Maximus's view.
Maximus's theology is cosmic. He looks at the grand metanarrative of Holy Scripture. Furthermore, he sees things in cosmic structures. His approach is largely symbolic and allegorical -- a common trend of the patristic fathers both in the east and the west (see: Augustine "On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis").
Furthermore, Maximus is obsessively Christocentric. Christ is the second Adam that heals human nature by uniting to it the divine nature through the hypostatic union. He has allowed for theosis or divinization on this basis. Furthermore, Christ defeats death by death. His beautifully elaborate explanations of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ are theologically deep while also being entirely practical.
Finally, I found his Christological interpretation of Jonah to be fascinating. Much more can be said about this collection (perhaps, another book could be written as a commentary on it), but these were the things that truly stuck out for me.
The second major concern here is a discussion of the body, the soul, and how these relate to becoming/rest. Maximus argues that we are in a state of becoming in virtue of being created and our proper telos is to rest in God's divine uncreated grace. This is in contrast to Origen's view that we originally existed in a state of rest with God and then fell into a state of becoming. For Origen, the body was created precisely for the fall. Maximus finds this idea abhorrent, clearly articulating a view in which the body and soul are both parts of the human person and that both come into being simultaneously into time. There is no pre-existing soul that enters a body on Maximus's view.
Maximus's theology is cosmic. He looks at the grand metanarrative of Holy Scripture. Furthermore, he sees things in cosmic structures. His approach is largely symbolic and allegorical -- a common trend of the patristic fathers both in the east and the west (see: Augustine "On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis").
Furthermore, Maximus is obsessively Christocentric. Christ is the second Adam that heals human nature by uniting to it the divine nature through the hypostatic union. He has allowed for theosis or divinization on this basis. Furthermore, Christ defeats death by death. His beautifully elaborate explanations of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ are theologically deep while also being entirely practical.
Finally, I found his Christological interpretation of Jonah to be fascinating. Much more can be said about this collection (perhaps, another book could be written as a commentary on it), but these were the things that truly stuck out for me.
March 14, 2024
This was a fascinating read. Particularly the last portion and the quasi-exposition of the book of Jonah and its relation to the Person and Work of Christ. It is evident why they call Maximus the greatest theologian of the 7th century. I have wondered recently, in reading many patristics, how the view of “theosis” or “deification” relates to the Protestant Reformed view of sanctification and what the nuances are, and this book only heightened my curiosity.
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