Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

DIFFICULTY 10
INTRODUCTION
This is much the longest Difficulty in the earlier collection. It
proceeds, by way of a discussion of a passage from St Gregory
Nazianzen’s Sermon 21, a panegyric of St Athanasius, the Patriarch
of Alexandria and defender of Nicene orthodoxy, who died in 373, to
constitute one of the most wide-ranging discussions of Maximus’
theological ideas. Because of its wide scope, it gives us a glimpse of the
kind of things Bishop John of Cyzicus and Maximus discussed among
themselves— interpretations of scriptural passages, problems raised
by the ideas current among the Origenist monks, and a whole series
of philosophical ideas, mainly concerned with the constitution of the
human person and meaning of God’s providence—all of this bearing on
their deepest concern, love and knowledge of God and union with him
in a transforming vision.
Because of its length, we get a glimpse, too, of how Maximus’ mind
worked. The movement of his mind is that of one who ponders and
meditates, patiently drawing together all sorts of apparently diverse
concerns. It is what is sometimes called ‘lateral thinking’, i.e. his mind
does not move straight ahead in conformity to a linear, logical
argument, rather it moves sideways, and gathers together a collection
of considerations that are gradually made to converge.
Maximus’ concern in this difficulty is primarily with the danger
that the passage from Gregory might be misinterpreted to sanction
the notion that the mind can reach God through reason alone, without
the necessity of any engagement in ascetic struggle, or praktikê. How
this might relate to the Origenism of Maximus’ day has been
discussed above. 1 Maximus starts by rejecting this idea directly, and
finds in the text of Gregory support for his insistence on the essential
importance of ascetic struggle. He finds this support in Gregory’s
describing the ‘fleshly’ as a ‘cloud or veil’. For the imagery of cloud or