Maximus the Confessor : Jesus Christ and the transfiguration of the world / Paul M. Blowers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blowers, Paul M., 1955- author.

Series:

Christian theology in context

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662.

Maximus.

Jesus Christ--Person and offices.

Jesus Christ.

Church history.

Religion.

Byzantine Empire--Religion.

Byzantine Empire.

Christology.

Physical Description:

xvi, 367 pages ; 22 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.

Summary:

This study contextualizes the achievement of a strategically crucial figure in Byzantium's turbulent seventh century, the monk and theologian Maximus the Confessor (580-662). Building on newer biographical research and a growing international body of scholarship, as well as on fresh examination of his diverse literary corpus, Paul Blowers develops a profile integrating the two principal initiatives of Maximus's career: first, his reinterpretation of the christocentric economy of creation and salvation as a framework for expounding the spiritual and ascetical life of monastic and non-monastic Christians; and second, his intensifying public involvement in the last phase of the ancient christological debates, the monothelete controversy, wherein Maximus helped lead an East-West coalition against Byzantine imperial attempts doctrinally to limit Jesus Christ to a single (divine) activity and will devoid of properly human volition. Blowers identifies what he terms Maximus's "cosmo-politeian" worldview, a contemplative and ascetical vision of the participation of all created beings in the novel politeia, or reordered existence, inaugurated by Christ's "new theandric energy". Maximus ultimately insinuated his teaching on the christoformity and cruciformity of the human vocation with his rigorous explication of the precise constitution of Christ's own composite person. In outlining this cosmo-politeian theory, Blowers additionally sets forth a "theo-dramatic" reading of Maximus, inspired by Hans Urs von Balthasar, which depicts the motion of creation and history according to the christocentric "plot" or interplay of divine and creaturely freedoms. Blowers also amplifies how Maximus's cumulative achievement challenged imperial ideology in the seventh century-- the repercussions of which cost him his life -- and how it generated multiple recontextualizations in the later history of theology.

Contents:

Part I Backgrounds

1 Maximus in His Historical Setting: Betwixt and Between 9

From Justinian to Heraclius: Byzantine Aspirations to a Christian World Order 9

Heraclius, the Rise of Islam, and the Cosmos of Byzantine Christian Culture in the Seventh Century 15

Between East and West: Maximus' Provenance and Migrations 25

Sophronius, Maximus, and Monastic Dissent Maximus, Public Role in the Monenergist-Monothelete Controversy 42

Final Years Betwixt and Between: Rome, Constantinople, Lazica 54

2 Writing Theology in Early Byzantium 64

Writing Wisdom: Monastic Ascêsis and the Quest of Philosophia 66

Deference to an Elder Sage and the Tradition of Charismatic Wisdom 69

Mediating Holiness and Wisdom through Text 71

Ethical, Natural and Theological Philosophia 74

Maximus as Interpreter: The Transfigured and Transfiguring Word 77

The Transfiguration as Paradigm 79

The Transfiguring Word in Scripture and Creation 82

Contemplative Interpretation as a Play of Intimacy and Elusion 86

Genre and Style in Maximus' Literary Corpus 90

Maximus Scholasticus? 96

Part II The Cosmic Landscapes of Maximus' Theology

3 Creation as the Drama of Divine Freedom and Resourcefulness 101

Maximus' Neo-Irenaean Perspective 102

Cosmic Diversity Aspiring to Unity 109

From Aesthetics to Dramatics in Maximus' Cosmology and Eschatology 114

A Drama of Freedom and Desire 119

Distance, Reciprocity, and the Openness of Created Nature to Deification 124

A "Cosmo-Politeian" Vision 130

4 Maximus' Cosmic Christology: Flesh Transfiguring the World 135

A Chalcedonian "Logic"? 135

The Eschatologically Simultaneous "Incarnations" of Christ the Logos 137

Jesus of Nazareth: Universality and Particularity 141

Penetrating the Mystery of the Composite Person of Jesus Christ 146

Jesus Christ and the Trinity 146

Natures and Person in Christ 148

The Battle over Wills 156

5 The Church and Its Liturgy as Threshold of the New Creation 166

The Historical and Literary Setting of Maximus' Teaching on Church, Liturgy, and Sacrament 167

Maximus at the Crossroads of Monastic and Ecclesiastical Worship 167

Maximus as a Commentator on the Liturgy and Sacraments 171

The Church as Theatre of the Cosmic Liturgy 176

Ecclesial Staging of the Liturgical Drama of Salvation and Deification 176

Ecclesial Theo-Mimesis: Mystagogy and Asceticism 178

The Eucharist and New Creation 184

The Cosmic and Ontological Dimensions of Eucharislic Communion with Christ 184

Presence and Mystery: Maximus' Evocative Silence on the Anaphora 189

The Church's Eucharist as Eschatological Denouement 193

Part III Maximus' Vision for the Transfigured Creation

6 Protology and Teleology in Maximus' Interpretation of Human Nature, Human Fallenness, and Human Hope 199

The Human Creature: A Theo-Dramatic Work-in-Progress 200

The Dialectics of Human "Nature" 201

The Dialectics of Human Passibility 206

The Tragedy of the Fall and Human Fallenness 211

Adam the Proto-Ascetic and His Inglorious Transgression 211

Sexuality and the Christian Hope 217

Historical Ambiguity and Eschatological Clarity 221

7 Active Passivity: Maximus on the Passion of Jesus Christ 225

The "Mystery of Christ" 226

Theo-Drama and the Cosmic Crucifix 230

The Agony of Christ and the Liberating of Human Freedom 234

The "Wondrous Exchange": Maximus on Atonement 240

Christ's Conquest of Evil and Death: Grounds for a Universal Apokatastasis? 247

8 Love, Desire, and Virtue: Transfigured Life in Christ and the Spirit 254

The Question of Love 254

The Transformation and Deification of Human Desire 258

Eros and the Reorientation of the Soul 258

The Dialectics and Therapeutics of Desire 262

Virtue and Virtuosity 271

Intellectual and Contemplative Virtue 273

Cultivating Virtuous Emotions 276

The Formation of Virtue within Disciplinary and Liturgical Community 280

Part IV Maximus' Afterlife East and West

9 Recontextualizations of Maximus East and West 287

Maximus' Legacy in the Early Medieval West 288

Maximus' Legacy in Middle Byzantine Scholasticism 292

Maximus in the Fray of East-West Schism: The Filioque Controversy 297

Maximus' Legacy in the Hesychast Controversy 301

Maximus in the Tradition of the Philokalia 306

Maximus in Modern Eastern Orthodox Theology 309

Theological Retrievals of Maximus beyond the Orthodox Fold 319

Hans Urs von Balthasar as Interpreter of Maximus 319

Retrievals of Maximus in Ecological Theology 324

Maximus in the Revival of Virtue Ethics 327.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (335-356) and index.

ISBN:

9780199673940

0199673942

OCLC:

942849436