Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

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1 LIFE AND TIMES St Maximus the Confessor was born in AD 580 in the Byzantine Empire, or the Roman Empire, as he and its inhabitants would have called it. Fifteen years earlier the great Emperor Justinian had died, at the end of a long reign (527–65) in which he had sought to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory. To a considerable degree he had succeeded. When his uncle, Justin I, died, the sway of the Emperor in Constantinople had shrunk to the Eastern end of the Mediterranean—the Balkan peninsula (including Greece), Asia Minor (and on the other side of the Black Sea Cherson—in the Crimea), Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The Western part of the Mediterranean world was ruled by the leaders of various barbarian tribes, even if several of these claimed to rule on behalf of the Emperor in Constantinople. By 565 the Roman Empire was more like the Empire the first Emperor, Augustus, had created: a union of the lands surrounding the Mediterranean—mare nostrum, our lake, as the Romans called it. North Africa had been reconquered in 533; Italy was restored to direct Byzantine control after a long drawn-out war that lasted from 535 to 554; and the Byzantines established themselves in the south-east corner of Spain, with their capital in Cordova, in 554. Much of Constantinople had been rebuilt during Justinian’s reign, including the ‘Great <strong>Church</strong>’, the church dedicated to the Holy Wisdom —Hagia Sophia. But already there were signs of impending collapse. Plague struck Constantinople with devastating effect in 542, and continued to strike the Near East during the sixth and the seventh centuries, seriously diminishing the population of the Empire. Even as Justinian’s armies were achieving costly victories in the West, Slavs were crossing the Danube and settling in the Balkan peninsula; within a few years of Maximus’ birth the Avars had crossed the Danube, assumed leadership of the Slavs, had established themselves in a number of important Balkan cities, including Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica: in 582) and at least for a time Singidunum (modern
4 INTRODUCTION Belgrade: in 584), and laid siege to Thessalonika in 584 and 586. And to the East there was Persia—the Sasanid Empire—with which Justinian had bought peace by paying tribute. Justinian’s successors refused this tribute and and embarked on war that lasted for twenty years. The struggle with Persia was to lead to invasion and counterinvasion in the early decades of the seventh century that impinged directly—in more ways than one—on the course of Maximus’ life, and left the two great empires vulnerable to attack from the Arab tribes. In twenty years—between 630 and 650—the Persian Empire fell to the Arabs and the Byzantine Empire lost its Eastern Provinces, and in 661 the first of the Umayyad caliphs, Mu’awiya, made the Byzantine provincial capital, Damascus, the capital of a huge empire that stretched from Egypt and Libya in the West to the valley of the Oxus in the East. By the time Maximus died in 662 the Roman dream had faded, and the Empire shrunk to part of Italy, the cities of the Adriatic and Aegean coast-line and around the Sea of Marmara (including Constantinople), and a much-ravaged Asia Minor (and Cherson). The then Emperor, Constans II, so despaired of the situation in the East Mediterranean that in 662, the year of Maximus’ death, he moved to the West and established his court in Sicily until his murder in 668. EARLY YEARS1 Maximus was born in 580. 2 According to the Greek Life of St Maximns, 3 composed in the tenth century by the Studite monk, Michael Exaboulites, he was born of noble parents in Constantinople, received a good education, 4 and in his early thirties became first secretary at the court of the Emperor Heraclius. It has been shown, however, that Michael pieced this Life together from diverse materials, and that, for Maximus’ early years, he simply paraphrased the beginning of the Life of the eighth-century reformer of the Stoudios monastery, St Theodore the Studite, omitting the proper names: from which we can infer that he had no direct evidence at all. 5 The evidence about his service under the Emperor Heraclius is, however, more secure, since it appears to be dependent on earlier material and has some independent attestation. 6 It looks as if Maximus became head of the Imperial Chancellery (the protoasecretis) in the comprehensive overhaul of the upper echelons of the civil service that would have followed Heraclius’ deposition of the usurper, Phocas, in 610. After a few years, however, Maximus renounced this post and became a monk, initially at Chrysopolis (modern Scutari) across the Bosphorus from Constantinople. The Greek Life gives two reasons for this decision: first, his unhappiness
Page 2 and 3: MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR St Maximus th
Page 4 and 5: MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR Andrew Louth
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS Preface vi Abbreviations v
Page 8 and 9: the densest of his theological trea
Page 10: Introduction
Page 15 and 16: 6 INTRODUCTION result of an adulter
Page 17 and 18: 8 INTRODUCTION state eternally from
Page 19 and 20: 10 INTRODUCTION no division, no sep
Page 21 and 22: 12 INTRODUCTION THE SEVENTH-CENTURY
Page 23 and 24: 14 INTRODUCTION nature of the theol
Page 25 and 26: 16 INTRODUCTION abandoned the hope
Page 28 and 29: 2 THE SOURCES OF MAXIMUS’ THEOLOG
Page 30 and 31: THE SOURCES OF MAXIMUS’ THEOLOGY
Page 40: THE SOURCES OF MAXIMUS’ THEOLOGY
Page 43 and 44: 34 INTRODUCTION the practice of the
Page 45 and 46: 36 INTRODUCTION kind of academic st
Page 47 and 48: 38 INTRODUCTION THE WAY OF LOVE 10
Page 49 and 50: 40 INTRODUCTION attachment to the t
Page 51 and 52: 42 INTRODUCTION that continually ri
Page 53 and 54: 44 INTRODUCTION necessity of asceti
Page 55 and 56: 46 INTRODUCTION to another and buil
Page 57 and 58: 48 THE DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF CH
Page 59 and 60: 50 THE DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF CH
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52 THE DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF CH
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62 INTRODUCTION Conversely the huma
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64 INTRODUCTION original equality a
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66 INTRODUCTION to Maximian as to O
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68 INTRODUCTION clear and limpid to
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70 INTRODUCTION Difficulty 41 is bu
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72 INTRODUCTION liturgy, but other
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74 INTRODUCTION vision, when our Go
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE TEXTS A
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION 79 all modern
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82 LETTER 2 human person, revealing
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84 LETTER 2 D 397A B C grace, throu
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86 LETTER 2 401A C D B Perhaps it w
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88 LETTER 2 C D 405A B particular t
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90 LETTER 2 B and the same thing, t
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92 DIFFICULTY 10 veil describes for
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94 DIFFICULTY 10 1108A B C 1 Introd
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96 DIFFICULTY 10 D 1112A B C to mak
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98 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1116A Spirit o
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100 DIFFICULTY 10 C unshakeable lan
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102 DIFFICULTY 10 D 1121A B 9 Conte
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104 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1125A finding
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106 DIFFICULTY 10 1128A B C diligen
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108 DIFFICULTY 10 D 1132A B by natu
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110 DIFFICULTY 10 B C D 1136A diffe
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112 DIFFICULTY 10 1137A B C into th
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114 DIFFICULTY 10 D 1141A B their c
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116 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1145A B which
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118 DIFFICULTY 10 B C D 22 Twofold
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120 DIFFICULTY 10 D 1152A B invisib
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122 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1156A circums
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124 DIFFICULTY 10 1157A B C corrupt
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C D 1161A 126 DIFFICULTY 10 B 31 Fu
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128 DIFFICULTY 10 B C D 1165A which
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130 DIFFICULTY 10 1168A B C through
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132 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1172A B sense
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134 DIFFICULTY 10 B 1176B C D heap.
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D 1180A 136 DIFFICULTY 10 B limitle
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138 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1184A B uncir
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B C D 1188A 140 DIFFICULTY 10 compa
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142 DIFFICULTY 10 B C D with the in
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144 DIFFICULTY 10 D 1193A B C unnat
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146 DIFFICULTY 10 C D 1197A Trinity
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148 DIFFICULTY 10 B D 1201A the spi
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150 DIFFICULTY 10 1204A B C 50 Cont
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152 DIFFICULTY 10 for whose sake th
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154 TEXTS The structure of the Diff
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156 TEXTS B C D no longer tied to e
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158 TEXTS 1312A D B C (Heb. 9:24),
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1316A 160 TEXTS C D earth (Col. 1:2
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162 TEXTS 1408C D 1409A B TEXT Of t
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164 TEXTS C D 1413A —we dare to t
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166 TEXTS B C D Another contemplati
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168 TEXTS B C stop the movement of
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170 TEXTS 1048A B C D Since, accord
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172 TEXTS D 1052A B C specified in
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174 TEXTS 1056A D B shows that what
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1060A 176 TEXTS C D energy, have ac
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178
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180 OPUSCULE 7 C D 72A B to his mys
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182 OPUSCULE 7 D 76A B C imperfect
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184 OPUSCULE 7 80A C B C has a natu
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186 OPUSCULE 7 84A C D B the revere
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188 OPUSCULE 7 88A C D I forbear fr
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190 OPUSCULE 7 B Since I have now s
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192 OPUSCULE 3 48A C D B Let no-one
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194 OPUSCULE 3 C 52A B C The purpor
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196 OPUSCULE 3 56A B C D the manife
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198 NOTES the Persians. But there s
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200 NOTES (1962). For Maximus’ at
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202 NOTES 9 It is perhaps worth emp
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204 NOTES 2 Discussed above, chapte
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206 NOTES 48 Cf. the Dionysian tria
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208 NOTES Faith 13 (Kotter [1973],
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210 NOTES hêmin (see On human natu
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212 NOTES 7 By which Maximus seems
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214 NOTES 13 This is a good definit
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216 NOTES 20 Gregory is here referr
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218
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220 BIBLIOGRAPHY Confessore, Capito
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222 BIBLIOGRAPHY Andia, Y.de (forth
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224 BIBLIOGRAPHY Marrou, H.-I. (194
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226
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228 INDEX Clément, O. 201 Coleman-
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230 INDEX Michael Psellus 43 Michae
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REVELATION
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Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

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