Salvation through temptation : Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas on Christ's victory over the devil / Benjamin E. Heidgerken, foreword by Paul M. Blowers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heidgerken, Benjamin E., 1984- author.

Contributor:

JSTOR (Online Service)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Temptation--History of doctrines.

Temptation.

Jesus Christ--Temptation--History of doctrines.

Jesus Christ.

Temptation of Jesus Christ--History of doctrines.

Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662.

Maximus.

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, 1225?-1274.

Thomas.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 316 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas on Christ's victory over the devil

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : The Catholic University of America Press, [2021]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Salvation through Temptation describes the development of predominant Greek and Latin Christian conceptions of temptation and of the work of Christ to heal and restore humankind in the context of that temptation, focusing on Maximus the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas as well-developed examples of Greek and Latin thought on these matters. Maximus and Thomas represent two trajectories concerning the woundedness of human emotionality in the wake of the primordial human sin. Heidgerken argues that Maximus stands in essential continuity with earlier Greek ascetic theology, which conceives of the weakness of fallen humankind in demonological categories, so that the Pauline law of sin is bound to external demonic agents that act upon the human mind through thoughts, desires, and sensory impressions. For Thomas, on the other hand, this wound consists primarily of an internal disordering of the faculties that results from the withdrawal of original grace: concupiscence or the fomes peccati. Yet even in this framework, the devil plays a significant role in Thomas's account of postlapsarian temptation. On the basis of these differing frameworks for human temptation, Heidgerken demonstrates the centrality of Christ's exemplarity in the Greek account and the centrality of Christ's moral perfections in the Latin account. As a consequence of these emphases, the Greek tradition of Maximus places distinct limits on the ability of human emotionality (even that of Christ) to be perfected in this life, whereas Thomas's approach allows Christ to completely embody a perfected form of human emotionality in his earthly life. Reciprocally, Thomas's account of Christ's moral perfections and virtue places distinct limits on his affirmation of Christ's experience of postlapsarian temptation, whereas Maximus's account allows for Christ to experience interior forms of temptation that more closely mirror the concrete moral experiences and circumstances of fallen human beings. Salvation through Temptation recommends a retrieval of early ascetic theology and demonology as the best contemporary systematic and ecumenically-viable approach to Christ's temptation and victory over the devil.

Contents:

1 Sources for Maximus's Presentation of Christ's Temptation p. 21

Maximus's Anthropological Sources p. 21

Maximus's Christological Sources p. 41

2 Maximus's Anthropology of Temptation p. 48

Adam's Created State and Fall p. 50

Human Nature and Demonic Temptation after the Fall p. 57

Providence and Affectivity in an Eschatological Perspective p. 90

3 Maximus's View of Christ's Temptation p. 98

Christ's Humanity, Human Fallenness, and the Devil p. 99

The Perfections of Christ's Humanity and His Temptation p. 106

Salvation through Temptation: Christ's Victory over the Devil p. 120

4 Sources for Thomas's Presentation of Christ's Temptation p. 132

John of Damascus as the Historical Link between Maximus and Thomas p. 133

Western Patristic Thought on Christ's Temptation by the Devil p. 148

High Medieval Sources on Christ's Temptation by the Devil p. 162

5 Thomas's Anthropology of Temptation p. 179

The Created and Fallen States p. 180

Fleshly and Internal Demonic Temptation p. 199

Demonic Temptation, Virtue, and Providence p. 231

6 Thomas's View of Christ's Temptation p. 243

Christological Synecdoche in Thomas's Soteriology of Temptation p. 244

Christ's Perfections and Voluntary Defects p. 254

Christ's Temptation and the Three Medieval Temptations p. 267.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. New York Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780813234137

0813234131

Publisher Number:

40030682229

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.