Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

66 INTRODUCTION
to Maximian as to Origenist theology—is detached by Maximus from
its origins in the Origenist myth of the cosmos as the place of fallen
souls.
PASSING THROUGH THE CLOUD
Amb. 7 is perhaps the most detailed rebuttal of the errors of
Origenism, and has been thoroughly analysed by Dom Polycarp
Sherwood (Sherwood 1955a), but Maximus’ revision of Origenism is
set in the widest context in the first of the Ambigua translated below,
Amb. 10. This is the longest of the Difficulties, and perhaps the most
obscure, at first sight. It concerns, as do all the early Ambigua, a
passage from the writings of St Gregory the Theologian. What seems
to have engaged Maximus’ attention here is that Gregory seems to
speak of ascent to assimilation to God by reason and contemplation
without making any mention of the stage of ascetic struggle: Maximus
makes this clear in his first sentence, and states uncompromisingly
that, in his view, the only truly satisfactory philosophy is ‘true
judgment concerning reality and activity, supported by ascetic
struggle’ (1108A). It appears from this that the intellectualist
Origenist monks whom Maximus has in mind in his criticisms
underplayed, or even discounted, what for Maximus (and for Evagrius
before him) was the foundation of any spiritual progress, namely
praktikê, or ascetic struggle. In this they may have been following too
closely their master Origen, of whom it has been said that ‘he is an
optimist for whom the struggle against the passions is a preliminary
stage in one’s interior development, to be passed through quickly’
(Harl 1958, 321). What engages Origen, and it may be the Origenist
monks (subject to the proviso mentioned above, that we really know
very little about them), is interpretation of Scripture and
contemplation of the cosmos, that is an engagement with the Word of
God, the Logos, leading to contemplation of, and assimilation to, God.
For Maximus, too, engagement with Scripture and natural
contemplation leading to union with God is at the heart of the
Christian life, but ascetic struggle is not simply an initial stage to be
accomplished as quickly as possible, it is an abiding concern of the
spiritual life. The most fundamental reason for this is that,
paradoxically, ascetic struggle can achieve nothing on its own. The
suspicion that Origen and (perhaps with greater justice) the Origenist
monks gave rise to was that the providential order of the cosmos
would suffice in itself to accomplish the return of fallen souls to union
with God: all souls need to do is co-operate. For Maximus any such
idea grossly underestimates the damage done by the Fall. As we have
already seen, ascetic struggle is, for Maximus, a response to God’s self-