Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

LETTER 2:
ON LOVE
INTRODUCTION
This letter is one of the earliest surviving works of St Maximus,
written during his brief stay at the monastery of St George in Cyzicus
which ended in 626 (letter 3, also to John, is in thanks for a gift to the
monastery of St George). It is addressed to John the Cubicularius, a
courtier in Constantinople. Like several other letters to John, it is in
the second person plural, which suggests that it was written to a
group (of courtiers?) in Constantinople who looked to Maximus as
their spiritual father, a relationship that probably went back to
Maximus’ time as a monk at Chrysopolis, just over the Bosphorus from
the capital, and had maybe grown out of friendships formed when
Maximus was protoasecretis in the imperial court. The letter is an
encomium of love, both spendidly expressed and profound in its
teaching. As Maximus’ first editor said, ‘Truly this is Maximus at his
best’: vere maximum agit Maximus (PG 91:393D).
It needs little introduction. But a few points might be made. First, it
is archetypally Maximus in its combination of philosophical learning
and quite practical, and also demanding, spiritual teaching. Maximus
uses philosophical terminology to develop his understanding of love,
most strikingly, perhaps, in the very abstract definition of love he
provides (401D). But his teaching is quite practical: however splendid
a concept love is, its touchstone is care for one’s neighbour (401D).
Second, Maximus’ teaching here is, compared with his later teaching,
incautiously expressed: he uses language, about there being one will
between God and human beings, that he will later retract (see 396C
and n. 6). Finally, nonetheless, we find here Maximus’ teaching in its
characteristic breadth: at one pole is self-love, ‘the first progeny of the
devil and the mother of all passions’ (397C), which cuts the human
being off from God and from other human beings; at the other pole is
deifying love, that breaks down all barriers, and transfigures the