The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor

The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor PDF Author: Pauline Allen
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199673837
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662) has become one of the most discussed figures in contemporary studies of Byzantine theology and philosophy. This book integrates for the first time Maximus' works and thought into the history of his life in the politically troubled times of seventh-century Byzantium.

The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor

The Oxford Handbook of Maximus the Confessor PDF Author: Pauline Allen
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199673837
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 641

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Book Description
Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662) has become one of the most discussed figures in contemporary studies of Byzantine theology and philosophy. This book integrates for the first time Maximus' works and thought into the history of his life in the politically troubled times of seventh-century Byzantium.

Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor

Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor PDF Author: Melchisedec Törönen
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191537853
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor presents the writings of a key figure in Byzantine theology in the light of the themes of unity and diversity. The principle of simultaneous union and distinction forms the core of Maximus' thought, pervading every area of his theology. It can be summarized as: Things united remain distinct and without confusion in an inseparable union. As Melchisedec Törönen shows, this master theme also resonates in contemporary theological and philosophical discussions.

Maximus the Confessor

Maximus the Confessor PDF Author: Andrew Louth
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134814909
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
St Maximus the Confessor, the greatest of Byzantine theologians, lived through the most catastrophic period the Byzantine Empire was to experience before the Crusades. This book introduces the reader to the times and upheavals during which Maximus lived. It discusses his cosmic vision of humanity and the role of the church. The study makes available a selection of Maximus' theological treaties many of them translated for the first time. The translations are accompanied by a lucid and informed introduction.

Maximus the Confessor and his Companions

Maximus the Confessor and his Companions PDF Author: Pauline Allen
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191583421
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
The seven documents in this book, which appear for the first time in an English translation from Greek and Latin, constitute a unique contemporary witness to the stalwart opposition of the monk Maximus the Confessor to seventh-century imperial edicts enforcing adherence to the doctrines of monoenergism and monothelitism (the doctrines that in Christ there are, respectively, only one energy and one will). The monastic resistance led by Maximus gained the support of Popes John IV, Theodore, and Martin I and found many other followers in the West, as can be judged by the convocation of 150 bishops at the Lateran Synod in Rome in 649 to condemn imperial religious policy. The documents, which have been translated from a recent critical edition, cover events from the time of Maximus' arrival in Constantinople for his first legal trial in 655; the futile attempts to persuade him to accept an imperial compromise; to his final trial in the capital in 662, and his death under appalling conditions in Lazica, on the coast of the Black Sea, in the same year. The contents of these documents provide a rare insight into the difficult period of transition from the decentralized provincial system of government that characterized late antiquity, to a more hierarchical structure centred on the power of the emperor in Constantinople. They also shed light on some lesser-known but significant participants in the monothelite controversy, several of whom followed their master into exile in Lazica; Maximus' two disciples Anastasius the monk and Anastasius the Apocrisiarius, their friends Theodore Spudaeus, Theodosius of Gangra, and the brothers Theodore and Euprepius. The religious controversies of both East and West appear in these documents against a backdrop of political turmoil, and Arab and Persian invasions. The documents will be important for those interested in early Byzantine studies, church history, historical theology, and hagiography.

Maximus the Confessor

Maximus the Confessor PDF Author: Paul M. Blowers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199673942
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This study contextualizes the achievement of a strategically crucial figure in Byzantium's turbulent seventh century, the monk and theologian Maximus the Confessor (580-662). Building on newer biographical research and a growing international body of scholarship, as well as on fresh examination of his diverse literary corpus, Paul Blowers develops a profile integrating the two principal initiatives of Maximus's career: first, his reinterpretation of the christocentric economy of creation and salvation as a framework for expounding the spiritual and ascetical life of monastic and non-monastic Christians; and second, his intensifying public involvement in the last phase of the ancient christological debates, the monothelete controversy, wherein Maximus helped lead an East-West coalition against Byzantine imperial attempts doctrinally to limit Jesus Christ to a single (divine) activity and will devoid of properly human volition. Blowers identifies what he terms Maximus's "cosmo-politeian" worldview, a contemplative and ascetical vision of the participation of all created beings in the novel politeia, or reordered existence, inaugurated by Christ's "new theandric energy". Maximus ultimately insinuated his teaching on the christoformity and cruciformity of the human vocation with his rigorous explication of the precise constitution of Christ's own composite person. In outlining this cosmo-politeian theory, Blowers additionally sets forth a "theo-dramatic" reading of Maximus, inspired by Hans Urs von Balthasar, which depicts the motion of creation and history according to the christocentric "plot" or interplay of divine and creaturely freedoms. Blowers also amplifies how Maximus's cumulative achievement challenged imperial ideology in the seventh century--the repercussions of which cost him his life-and how it generated multiple recontextualizations in the later history of theology.

The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology

The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology PDF Author: William James Abraham
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019966224X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of the Epistemology of Theology brings together leading scholars in the fields of theology and epistemology to examine and articulate what can be categorized as appropriate epistemic evaluation in theology. Part one focuses on some of the epistemic concepts that have been traditionally employed in theology such as knowledge of God, revelation and scripture, reason and faith, experience, and tradition. This section also considers concepts that have not received sufficient epistemological attention in theology, such as saints, authority, ecclesial practices, spiritual formation, and discernment. Part two concentrates on epistemic concepts that have received significant attention in contemporary epistemology and can be related to theology such as understanding, wisdom, testimony, virtue, evidence, foundationalism, realism/antirealism, skepticism, and disagreement. Part three offers examples from key figures in the Christian tradition and investigates the relevant epistemological issues and insights in these writers, as well as recognizing the challenges of connecting insights from contemporary epistemology with the subject of theology proper, namely, God. Part four centers on five emerging areas that warrant further epistemological consideration: Liberation Theology, Continental Philosophy, modern Orthodox writers, Feminism, and Pentecostalism. This authoritative collection explores how the various topics, figures, and emerging conversations can be reconceived and addressed in light of recent developments in epistemology. Each chapter provides an analysis of the crucial moves, positions, and debates, while also identifying relevant epistemic considerations. This Handbook fulfils the need for the development of this new conversation that will take its natural place in the intersection of theology and epistemology. It links the fields of theology and epistemology in robust, meaningful, and significant ways.

Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher

Maximus the Confessor as a European Philosopher PDF Author: Sotiris Mitralexis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498295584
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
The study of Maximus the Confessor’s thought has flourished in recent years: international conferences, publications and articles, new critical editions and translations mark a torrent of interest in the work and influence of perhaps the most sublime of the Byzantine Church Fathers. It has been repeatedly stated that the Confessor’s thought is of eminently philosophical interest. However, no dedicated collective scholarly engagement with Maximus the Confessor as a philosopher has taken place—and this volume attempts to start such a discussion. Apart from Maximus’ relevance and importance for philosophy in general, a second question arises: should towering figures of Byzantine philosophy like Maximus the Confessor be included in an overview of the European history of philosophy, or rather excluded from it—as is the case today with most histories of European philosophy? Maximus’ philosophy challenges our understanding of what European philosophy is. In this volume, we begin to address these issues and examine numerous aspects of Maximus’ philosophy—thereby also stressing the interdisciplinary character of Maximian studies. Contributors include: Fr. Maximos Constas, Justin Shaun Coyle, Vladimir Cvetković, Natalie Depraz, Demetrios Harper, Michael Harrington, Georgi Kapriev, Karolina Kochańczyk-Bonińska, Nicholas Loudovikos, Andrew Louth, John Panteleimon Manoussakis, Michail Mantzanas, Smilen Markov, Sotiris Mitralexis, Marcin Podbielski, Dionysios Skliris, Georgios Steiris, Stoyan Tanev, Torstein Theodor Tollefsen, Jordan Daniel Wood

The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor

The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor PDF Author: Torstein Tollefsen
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191608068
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 892

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Book Description
St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662), was a major Byzantine thinker, a theologian and philosopher. He developed a philosophical theology in which the doctrine of God, creation, the cosmic order, and salvation is integrated in a unified conception of reality. Christ, the divine Logos, is the centre of the principles (the logoi ) according to which the cosmos is created, and in accordance with which it shall convert to its divine source. Torstein Tollefsen treats Maximus' thought from a philosophical point of view, and discusses similar thought patterns in pagan Neoplatonism. The study focuses on Maximus' doctrine of creation, in which he denies the possibility of eternal coexistence of uncreated divinity and created and limited being. Tollefsen shows that by the logoi God institutes an ordered cosmos in which separate entities of different species are ontologically interrelated, with man as the centre of the created world. The book also investigates Maximus' teaching of God's activities or energies, and shows how participation in these energies is conceived according to the divine principles of the logoi. An extensive discussion of the complex topic of participation is provided.

The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite

The Oxford Handbook of Dionysius the Areopagite PDF Author: Mark Edwards
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192538802
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 753

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Book Description
This Handbook contains forty essays by an international team of experts on the antecedents, the content, and the reception of the Dionysian corpus, a body of writings falsely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St Paul, but actually written about 500 AD. The first section contains discussions of the genesis of the corpus, its Christian antecedents, and its Neoplatonic influences. In the second section, studies on the Syriac reception, the relation of the Syriac to the original Greek, and the editing of the Greek by John of Scythopolis are followed by contributions on the use of the corpus in such Byzantine authors as Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Niketas Stethatos, Gregory Palamas, and Gemistus Pletho. In the third section attention turns to the Western tradition, represented first by the translators John Scotus Eriugena, John Sarracenus, and Robert Grosseteste and then by such readers as the Victorines, the early Franciscans, Albert the Great, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Dante, the English mystics, Nicholas of Cusa, and Marsilio Ficino. The contributors to the final section survey the effect on Western readers of Lorenzo Valla's proof of the inauthenticity of the corpus and the subsequent exposure of its dependence on Proclus by Koch and Stiglmayr. The authors studied in this section include Erasmus, Luther and his followers, Vladimir Lossky, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Jacques Derrida, as well as modern thinkers of the Greek Church. Essays on Dionysius as a mystic and a political theologian conclude the volume.

The Ascetic Life

The Ascetic Life PDF Author: Saint Maximus (Confessor)
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809102587
Category : Asceticism
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The Ascetic Life is a dialogue between a young novice and an old monk on how to achieve the Christian life. The Four Centuries is a collection of aphorisms.