At last, the greatest work of St Maximos the Confessor is available
in English translation by Nicholas Constas PhD. Dr Constas is
an Athonite monk (Fr. Maximos Simonopetretis) and presently a
professor at Holy Cross Orthodox Seminary.
The two volume set can be purchased from Amazon.com
professor at Holy Cross Orthodox Seminary.
The two volume set can be purchased from Amazon.com
"Maximos the Confessor (580-662) occupies a unique position in
the history of Byzantine philosophy, theology, and spirituality.
His profound spiritual experiences and penetrating theological
vision found complex and often astonishing expression in his
unparalleled command of Greek philosophy, making him one of
the most challenging and original Christian thinkers of all time.
So thoroughly did his thought come to influence the Byzantine
theological tradition that it is impossible to trace the subsequent
history of Orthodox Christianity without knowledge of his work.
The Ambigua (or "Book of Difficulties") is Maximos's greatest
philosophical and doctrinal work, in which his daring originality,
prodigious talent for speculative thinking, and analytical acumen
are on lavish display. In the Ambigua, a broad range of theological
topics--cosmology, anthropology, the philosophy of mind and
language, allegory, asceticism, and metaphysics--are transformed
in a synthesis of Aristotelian logic, Platonic metaphysics, Stoic
psychology, and the arithmetical philosophy of a revived
Pythagoreanism.
The result is a labyrinthine map of the mind's journey to God that
figured prominently in the Neoplatonic revival of the Komnenian
Renaissance and the Hesychast Controversies of the Late Byzantine
period. This remarkable work has never before been available in a
critically based edition or English translation." from the Amazon
website
the history of Byzantine philosophy, theology, and spirituality.
His profound spiritual experiences and penetrating theological
vision found complex and often astonishing expression in his
unparalleled command of Greek philosophy, making him one of
the most challenging and original Christian thinkers of all time.
So thoroughly did his thought come to influence the Byzantine
theological tradition that it is impossible to trace the subsequent
history of Orthodox Christianity without knowledge of his work.
The Ambigua (or "Book of Difficulties") is Maximos's greatest
philosophical and doctrinal work, in which his daring originality,
prodigious talent for speculative thinking, and analytical acumen
are on lavish display. In the Ambigua, a broad range of theological
topics--cosmology, anthropology, the philosophy of mind and
language, allegory, asceticism, and metaphysics--are transformed
in a synthesis of Aristotelian logic, Platonic metaphysics, Stoic
psychology, and the arithmetical philosophy of a revived
Pythagoreanism.
The result is a labyrinthine map of the mind's journey to God that
figured prominently in the Neoplatonic revival of the Komnenian
Renaissance and the Hesychast Controversies of the Late Byzantine
period. This remarkable work has never before been available in a
critically based edition or English translation." from the Amazon
website
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