The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor

by Torstein Tollefsen

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199237142
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2008
Series:	Oxford Early Christian Studies
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. The divine Ideas and the creation of the Cosmos3. The Logos, the logoi and created beings4. The divine activity5. The concept of participationConclusionBibliographyIndex