54—Maximus the Confessor: Where East and West Meet
By Mike Aquilina ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 29, 2021 | In Way of the Fathers (Podcast)
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By the seventh century, Christian thinkers of East and West were settling into scholastic methods, synthesizing and systematizing the thought of their Greek or Latin forebears. Maximus represents the best mind (by far) in this movement. Greek by origin, he spent decades living in Latin lands. His writing reflected the beauty and brilliance of piety and theology on both sides of the Mediterranean. In Maximus (to steal a phrase from Pope John Paul II) the Church breathed with both lungs. He marshaled all the resources of East and West to oppose the emerging Monothelite heresy. The emperor, meanwhile, pinned his hopes on the heresy to unite the empire against rising Islam—and Maximus suffered brutal torture and exile.
LINKS
Anthony Marco, doctoral dissertation, Consecrate the World to God: Maximus the Confessor on the “Secular” and Vatican II’s Theology of the Laity https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2987&context=etd
Andrew J. Summerson, Audio: Exegesis of the Human Heart: Narrating the Emotional Life of Christians with Maximus the Confessor https://sheptytskyinstitute.ca/exegesis-of-the-human-heart-narrating-the-emotional-life-of-christians-with-maximus-the-confessor/
Maximus the Confessor, On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ (an anthology of his works) https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Mystery-Jesus-Christ/dp/088141249X/
Maximus the Confessor: Selected Writings https://www.amazon.com/Maximus-Confessor-Selected-Writings-Spirituality/dp/0809126591/
Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com
Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/
Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org
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Mike Aquilina is a popular author working in the area of Church history, especially patristics. He is executive vice-president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, a contributing editor of Angelus (magazine) and general editor of the Reclaiming Catholic History Series from Ave Maria Press. See full bio.
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