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Maximus the Confessor’s Conception of Beauty

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Notes

  1. Plato, The Symposium, ed. and transl. Tom Griffith, Berkeley CA, 1989, passim.

  2. Plato, Hippias Major, 298A.

  3. W. Tatarkiewicz, ‘The Great Theory of Beauty and its Decline’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 31, 1972, pp. 165-80 (166).

  4. Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, ed. and transl. Giovanni Orlandi, 2 vols, Milan, 1966, II, p. 449 (VI.2).

  5. See R. Scruton, Beauty, Oxford, 2009, pp. 22-6.

  6. Patrologiae cursus completus. Series graeca, ed. J.P. Migne, 162 vols, Paris, 1857-86 (hereafter cited as PG), XC, cols 68-109.

  7. See J. Farrell, Free Choice in St Maximus the Confessor, South Canaan PA, 1989; D. Bathrellos, The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature and Will in the Christology of St Maximus the Confessor, Oxford, 2004.

  8. Similar in this respect is the concept of μεθόριος, developed by Philo of Alexandria and Gregory of Nyssa, which denotes the human being as a liminal creature situated between mortality and immortality, or the soul as an intermediary between the sensible and intelligible realms. However, the mediator concept is developed further by Maximus, who makes it central to his system. For μεθόριος in Gregory and Philo, see G. Maspero, ‘Methorios’, in The Brill Dictionary of Gregory of Nyssa, ed. L. F. Mateo-Seco and G. Maspero, Leiden, 2010, pp. 497-499 and Runia’s comments in Philo of Alexandria, On the Creation of the Cosmos According to Moses, introd., transl. and comment. D. T. Runia, Leiden, 2001, pp. 321-329.

  9. See G. Kapriev, Maksim Izpovednik: Vvedenie v mislovnata mu sistema, Sofia, 2010; A. Louth, Maximus the Confessor, London, 1996, pp. 3-74.

  10. Some attempts have been made to explore this issue: see M. D. Gibson, ‘The Beauty of the Redemption of the World: The Theological Aesthetics of Maximus the Confessor and Jonathan Edwards’, Harvard Theological Review, 101, 2008, pp. 45-76, and K. Bezarashvili, ‘The Interrelation of the Theological Concepts of Divine Love, Beauty, and Contemplation in the Writings of Maximus the Confessor and Shota Rustaveli’, in Maximus the Confessor and Georgia, ed. T. Mgaloblishvili and L. Khoperia, London, 2009, pp. 133-150. These studies, however, are comparative and therefore do not focus on Maximus’s idea of beauty itself.

  11. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1077C. For another edition, see Ambigua ad Thomam una cum Epistula secunda ad eundem, ed. B. Janssens, Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca (hereafter cited as CCSG), XLVIII, Turnhout, 2002. Translations of passages from Ambigua 7, 8 and 42 are from St Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ, transl. P. M. Blowers and R. L. Wilken, Crestwood NY, 2003, pp. 45-74, 75-78, 79-95; those from Ambigua 10 and 41 are from Louth, Maximus the Confessor (n. 9 above). For a complete translation of Ambigua, see Maximos the Confessor, On Difficulties in the Church Fathers, transl. N. Constas, 2 vols, Cambridge, MA, 2014.

  12. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1080A.

  13. Ad Thalassium 13 = Quaestiones ad Thalassium, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel, 2 vols, CCSG, VII and XXII, Turnhout, 1980-1990, VII, p. 95; Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1085AB. Logoi had already been defined as divine and good acts of will by Dionysius the Areopagite in The Divine Names V.8: Dionysius Areopagita, Corpus Dionysiacum, ed. B. R. Suchla, G. Heil, and A. M. Ritter, 2 vols, Berlin, 1990-1991, I, col. 824C.

  14. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1084D. Maximus talks about the threefold incarnation (or embodiment) of the Logos in the logoi of created beings, in the Scriptures and in the historical incarnation of Christ: Ambigua 33, in PG, XCI, cols 1285C-1288A.

  15. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1084D.

  16. For a more detailed discussion, see T. Tollefsen, The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor, Oxford, 2008, pp. 127-30.

  17. Ambigua 41, in PG, XCI, col. 1313A-B.

  18. E. D. Perl, ‘Methexis: Creation, Incarnation, Deification in Saint Maximus the Confessor’, PhD diss., Yale University, 1991, p. 171.

  19. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1168B.

  20. Ibid. The radiant garments of the Lord refer to the Transfiguration of Christ, when his face and garments shone: Matthew 17:2.

  21. While it is true that logoi are activities, not all divine activities are logoi. See Tollefsen, The Christocentric Cosmology, pp. 169-71.

  22. Mystagogia, 24, ed. Christian Boudignon, CCSG LXIX, Turnhout, 2011, pp. 64-5; translation: Maximus Confessor, Selected Writings, transl. G. C. Berthold, New York, 1985, p. 210.

  23. Note the linguistic resonance of ἐμπρέπων and συμπρέπουσι with εὐπρέπεια.

  24. Ad Thalassium 53, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 435. Obviously glory and honour here correspond to contemplation and praxis.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Capita gnostica, I.13: ‘The one who has illumined his mind with the divine thoughts, who has accustomed his reason to honor ceaselessly the Creator with divine hymns, and who has sanctified his sense with uncontaminated images has added to the natural beauty of the image the voluntary good of likeness.’ Translation: Maximus the Confessor, Selected Writings (n. 22 above), p. 131.

  27. Ad Thalassium 53, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 433.

  28. See Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1084B: ‘In God the logoi of beautiful things are securely grounded.’.

  29. Epistle 2, in PG XC, col. 404A. Letter 2 is translated in Louth, Maximus the Confessor (n. 9 above), p. 87.

  30. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1117C.

  31. See also, e.g., Athanasius, Contra Gentes, I.4: ‘The body has eyes to see creation and to know the Creator through this harmonious order.’ See Athanasius, Contra Gentes, transl. E. P. Meijering, Leiden, 1984, p. 25.

  32. See, e.g., Plotinus, Enneads, I.6.2: ‘We hold that all the loveliness of this world comes by communion in Ideal-Form.’ Translation: Plotinus, The Six Enneads, transl. S. MacKenna, Chicago, 1952, p. 22.

  33. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1176D.

  34. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1176BC. Cf. Alberti’s view in n. 4 above.

  35. Not only is the world beautifully arranged, but so, too, is Scripture as the written word of God and one of his embodiments; Maximus speaks of ‘the beautiful arrangement (καλὴ εὐταξία) of the divine Scripture’: Ad Thalassium, 10, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 83.

  36. De charitate III.72; see St Maximus the Confessor, The Ascetic Life. The Four Centuries on Charity, transl. P. Sherwood, New York, 1955, pp. 186-7.

  37. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1129D.

  38. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1069CD.

  39. The Divine Names IV.7, col. 704C.

  40. Aristotle, Physics, III.2, 201b.

  41. See A. Kosman, ‘Aristotle’s Definition of Motion’, Phronesis: A Journal of Ancient Philosophy, 14, 1969, pp. 40-62 (56-7).

  42. For Aristotle on the beautiful as the desirable in itself, see Metaphysics, XII.7, 1072a-b. See also C. P. Long, Aristotle on the Nature of Truth, Cambridge, 2011, pp. 214-15.

  43. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, cols 1069D-1072A.

  44. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1157A.

  45. Ambigua 8, in PG, XCI, col. 1104A.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Ad Thalassium 47, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 319.

  48. Ambigua 42, in PG, XCI, col. 1321A.

  49. Ad Thalassium 26, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 185.

  50. Similarly, Plotinus, Enneads, I.6.5, writes that ‘when emancipated from all the passions, purged of all that embodiment has thrust upon it’, then ‘the ugliness that came only from the alien is stripped away’ Translation: Plotinus, The Six Enneads, transl. MacKenna (n. 32 above), p. 24.

  51. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1205A.

  52. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col.1152A.

  53. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1112D.

  54. Ambigua 21, in PG, XCI, col. 1248C; translation: Maximus the Confessor, On Difficulties (n. 11 above), I, p. 431.

  55. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1153C.

  56. Ad Thalassium 51, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 395.

  57. See P. M. Blowers, Exegesis and Spiritual Pedagogy in Maximus the Confessor: An Investigation of the Quaestiones ad Thalassium, Notre Dame, IN, 1991, pp. 117-22.

  58. Ad Thalassium 31, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 223; translation: Blowers, Exegesis (n. 57 above), p. 110.

  59. Ad Thalassium, Prologue, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 35.

  60. Ad Thalassium 49, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 363.

  61. Ad Thalassium 49, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 353-5.

  62. Maximus comments on the story of Zorobabel in the first book of Esdras: ‘Now when this young man was gone forth, he lifted up his face to heaven toward Jerusalem, and praised the King of heaven, And said, From thee cometh victory, from thee cometh wisdom, and thine is the glory, and I am thy servant.’

  63. Ad Thalassium 54, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 447.

  64. Cf. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, VII.43: ‘For it is not through outward comeliness (ὡραιότης) that the sum of things good and beautiful (καλά τε κἀγαθά) is increased in the world, but by the daily practice of the virtues.’ Translation: Xenophon, Memorabilia – Oeconomicus – Symposium – Apology, transl. E. C. Marchant and O. J. Todd, London, 1979, p. 429.

  65. Ad Thalassium 63, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG XXII, p. 171.

  66. J.-C. Larchet, La divinisation de l’homme selon saint Maxime le Confesseur, Paris, 1996, p. 453.

  67. See Blowers, Exegesis (n. 57 above), pp. 204-5.

  68. Ad Thalassium 10, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 83-5.

  69. Mystagogia 24, ed. Boudignon, CCSG LXIX, p. 66.

  70. For a thorough discussion, see L. Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor, Chicago, IL, 1995, pp. 332-68.

  71. See also Maximus’s account of Nineveh as a three-day journey, which he sees as a metaphor for the three laws of nature, Scripture, and grace: Ad Thalassium 64, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG XXII, p. 235-9.

  72. Ad Thalassium 64, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG XXII, p. 231; translation: St Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery (n. 11 above), p. 166.

  73. ‘L’être humain et toutes les créatures rationnelles, deviendront des personnes théomorphes, douées de la beauté divine et de leur ressemblance à Dieu, dans leur course vers l’accomplissement de leur perfection finale’. N. Matsoukas, La vie en Dieu selon Maxime le Confesseur. Paris, 1994, p. 294.

  74. Ad Thalassium 49, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 361.

  75. See, e.g., Ad Thalassium 61, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG XXII, p. 85.

  76. Plato, e.g., applies it to rhetoric; see Phaedrus, 274B: ‘But we have still to speak of propriety (εὐπρέπεια) and impropriety (ἀπρέπεια) in writing, how it should be done (καλῶς) and how it is improper (ἀπρεπῶς), have we not?’ Translation: Plato, Euthyphro – Apology – Crito – Phaedo – Phaedrus, transl. H. N. Fowler, London, 1925, pp. 560-1.

  77. Ad Thalassium 27, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 199.

  78. Ad Thalassium 49, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, p. 313.

  79. Capita gnostica, II.73; translation: Maximus the Confessor, Selected Writings (n. 22 above), p. 163.

  80. Mystagogia, 3, ed. Boudignon, CCSG LXIX, pp. 17-8.

  81. Athanasius, Contra Gentes, III.38; translation: Athanasius, Contra Gentes, transl. Meijering (n. 31 above), p. 125.

  82. See, e.g., Dionysius the Areopagite, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, I.3, and III.3.15.

  83. Plotinus, Enneads, I.6.5; translation: Plotinus, The Six Enneads, transl. MacKenna (n. 32 above), p. 23-4.

  84. Ambigua 21, in PG, XCI, col. 1248B.

  85. Plotinus, Enneads, I.6.4: ‘But the soul, taking no help from the organs, sees and proclaims them [higher beauties].’ Translation: Plotinus, The Six Enneads, transl. MacKenna (n. 32 above), p. 23.

  86. Ambigua 21, in PG, XCI, col. 1248C.

  87. H. U. von Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor, San Francisco, 2003, p. 305.

  88. Capita gnostica, II.74; translation: Maximus the Confessor, Selected Writings (n. 22 above), p. 163.

  89. See, e.g., R. Roques, L’univers dionysien, Paris, 1954.

  90. Dionysius the Areopagite, The Celestial Hierarchy I.3; see Dionysius Areopagita, Corpus Dionysiacum, ed. Suchla, Heil and Ritter (n. 13 above), II, col. 121D; translation in Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, transl. C. Luibheid, New York, 1987, p. 146.

  91. Capita gnostica, II.88; translation: Maximus the Confessor, Selected Writings (n. 22 above), p. 167.

  92. Similarly, for Gregory Nazianzenus ‘the corporeal is not merely an instrument the human spirit uses for encountering God, but rather is itself an object of liberation by God’; see S. Bergmann, ‘ “Now the Spirit Dwells Among Us…”: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature in the Trinitarian Cosmology of Gregory of Nazianz’, in Creation and Salvation: A Mosaic of Selected Classic Christian Theologies, ed E. M. Conradie, Berlin, 2012, pp. 53-73 (63).

  93. Ambigua 7, in PG, XCI, col. 1088C.

  94. See D. A. Hyland, Plato and the Question of Beauty, Bloomington, 2008, p. 50, who challenges the supposed Platonic hatred of the body.

  95. See Adam Cooper, The Body in St Maximus the Confessor: Holy Flesh, Wholly Deified, Oxford, 2005.

  96. See, e.g., Ad Thalassium 22, ed. C. Laga and C. Steel (n. 13 above), CCSG VII, pp. 137-9.

  97. Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator (n. 70 above), p. 430.

  98. G. Florovsky, Vostochnye otsy V-VIII vekov, Paris, 1990, p. 104.

  99. Ambigua 10, 1128A; cit. in Blowers, Exegesis (n. 57 above), p. 103.

  100. Ambigua 10, in PG, XCI, col. 1128B.

  101. The parallel with Plato here seems evident.

  102. Gibson, ‘The Beauty of the Redemption’ (n. 10 above), pp. 52-3.

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Ivanovic, F. Maximus the Confessor’s Conception of Beauty. Int class trad 22, 159–179 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-015-0373-3

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