Fr.

Maximos (Constas)
Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology - Fall Semester 2014

St. Maximos the Confessor, The Ambigua to John

Seminar: Wednesdays 6:40-9:00 p.m.

Syllabus and Bibliography

The Ambigua (or “Book of Difficulties”) is Maximos the Confessor’s greatest philosophical and doctrinal work. Through
a close reading of the text, this course studies: (1) the Confessor’s refutation of Origenism; (2) his cosmology and
doctrine of the logoi; (3) his theological anthropology (with special emphasis on the theology of divinization); (4) his
understanding of language, the language of Scripture, and scriptural exegesis; and (5) the three stages of practical, natural,
and theological contemplation.
Wednesday, Sep. 3: Introduction, presentation of syllabus and course requirements.

“Guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and holiness”:

The Life of St. Maximos the Confessor
I. The Life of St. Maximos the Confessor
Wednesday, Sep. 10: (1) Louth, Maximus the Confessor, 3-46; (2) Sherwood, Annotated Date-List, 1-
22; (3) Record of the Trial (ed. Allen and Neil, 48-74); and (4) Fr. Maximos, “St. Maximus the
Confessor: The Reception of his Thought in East and West” (cited below).
The Greek text of the Life of St. Maximos has been edited and translated by Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen, The Life of
Maximos the Confessor: Recension 3 (Strathfield, 2003), 38-185 = text and translation || For a collection of texts pertaining
to the arrest, trial, and exile of St. Maximos, see: Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil, eds., Maximos the Confessor and His
Companions: Documents from Exile (Oxford, 2002) || For a chronology of the Confessor’s life and works, see: Polycarp
Sherwood, An Annotated Date-List of the Works of Maximus the Confessor (Rome, 1952) || See also: Andrew Louth,
Maximus the Confessor (London, 1996), 3-46 .
I.2. The Works of St. Maximos the Confessor
Polycarp Sherwood, An Annotated Date-List of the Works of Maximus the Confessor (Rome, 1952).
I.3. St. Maximos the Confessor in Ecclesiastical Tradition
Fr. Maximos (Constas), “St. Maximus the Confessor: The Reception of his thought in East and West,” in Knowing the
Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection: Proceedings of the Symposium on St. Maximus the Confessor, ed. Bishop Maxim
Vasilevic (Belgrade & Alhambra, 2013), 25-53.

“Portions of God, flowing down from above”: The Doctrine of the Logoi
II.1. The Ambigua to John: The Doctrine of the Logoi (I)
Wednesday, Sep. 17: (1) Meyendorff, “The Origenist Crisis,” 32-49; (2) id., “The Cosmic
Dimension of Salvation,” 99-115, both in his Christ in Eastern Christian Tradition (Washington,
1969); (3) Fr. Maximos, “Introduction” to the Ambigua, vol. 1, pp. vii-xxxii; (4) St. Maximos,
Prologue to the Ambigua to Thomas, vol. 1, pp. 3-7; (5) Prologue to the Ambigua to John, vol. 1, pp. 63-
69; (6) Amb 6, pp. 69-75; and (7) Amb 7.1-8, pp. 75-85 || For an analysis of Amb 6-7, see (8)
Sherwood, Earlier Ambigua, 21-29.
See also: Polycarp Sherwood, “Maximus and Origenism,” and “Logos and the Unity of Creation,” in id., The Earlier
Ambigua of St. Maximus the Confessor and his Refutation of Origenism (Rome, 1955), 72-102; 166-77 || Paul Blowers, “The
Dialectics and Therapeutics of Desire in Maximus the Confessor,” Vigiliae Christianae 65 (2011): 425-51 || For a lucid
discussion of Maximos’s doctrine of the logoi, see: Eric Perl, “Methexis: Creation, Incarnation, Deification in Saint
Maximus Confessor” (Ph.D. diss., Yale, 1991), chap. 5 || see also: Hans Urs von Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe
According to Maximos the Confessor (San Francisco, 2003), chap. 3.
II.2. The Ambigua to John: The Doctrine of the Logoi (II)
Wednesday, Sep. 24: (1) Amb 7.9-44, vol. 1, pp. 85-141.
[Friday, Sep. 26 - Sunday, Sep. 28 = International Colloquium: “Maximus the Confessor as a European
Philosopher,” Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany. Visit the conference website at: maximus2014.eu]
II.3. The Ambigua to John: The Doctrine of the Logoi (III)
Wednesday, Oct. 1: (1) Amb 8, vol. 1, pp. 143-49; (1a) Amb 71.5-10, vol. 2, pp. 319-29; (2) Amb 15,
vol. 1, pp. 363-77; (3) Amb 22, vol. 1, pp. 449-51; (4) Amb 33, vol. 2, 63-65; and (5) Amb 42.13-16,
vol. 2, pp. 145-53 || For an analysis of Amb 8, 71, 15, 22, 33, and 42, see (6) Sherwood, Earlier
Ambigua, 29-30; 70-71; 42-43; 46-47; 52; 56-61.
Wednesday, Oct. 8: Summary and Conclusions.

“God and man are paradigms of each other”:

The Theology of Divinization
III.1. The Transfiguration of Christ
Wednesday, Oct. 15: (1) Amb 10.1-55, vol. 1, pp. 151-241 || For an analysis of Amb 10, see (2)
Sherwood, Earlier Ambigua, 30-40; and (3) Louth, Maximus, 94-96.
The most important monograph on Maximos’s theology of divinization is: Jean-Claude Larchet, La divinisation de
l’homme selon saint Maxime le Confesseur (Paris, 1988) || See also: Thunberg, “Deification: The Purpose of Human Life,”
in his Microcosm and Mediator, 427-32 || and Norman Russel, “Maximus the Confessor,” in his The Doctrine of Deification
in Greek Patristic Theology (Oxford, 2004), 262-295.

III.2. The Transfiguration of the Universe

Wednesday, Oct. 22: (1) Amb 10.56-120, vol. 1, pp. 241-343.

III.3: The Rapture of Saint Paul

Wednesday, Oct. 29: (1) Amb 20, vol. 1, pp. 409-19 || For an analysis of Amb 20, see (2) Sherwood,
Earlier Ambigua, 45 || and (3) Fr. Maximos (Constas), “The Reception of Saint Paul and Pauline
Theology in the Late Byzantine Period,” in The New Testament and Byzantium, ed. Robert Nelson
and Derek Krueger (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, forthcoming, 2015), 1-32.
Wednesday, Nov. 5: Summary and Conclusions
Wednesday, Nov. 12: Guest Lecture, Professor Tamsin Jones

“Naturally mediating through himself all the divided extremes”:

Theological Anthropology
IV. The Human Person as Microcosm and Mediator
Wednesday, Nov. 19: (1) Amb 31.1-3, vol. 2, pp. 39-43; (2) Amb 41, vol. 2, pp. 103-121; and (3)
Amb 67.10, vol. 2, pp. 297-99 || For an analysis of Amb 31 and 41, see (4) Sherwood, Earlier
Ambigua, 50-51; 55; (5) Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator, 144-54 (= “The Fall and its
Consequences”); 373-81 (= “Maximus on Male and Female”); and (6) Adam Cooper, The Body in
St. Maximus the Confessor: Holy Flesh, Wholly Deified (Oxford, 2005), 209-27.

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 “The written form of the holy Gospels is but elementary instruction”:
The Nature of Sacred Scripture
V. The Gospel of Jesus Christ in Eschatological Perspective
Wednesday, Dec. 3: (1) Amb 21, vol. 1, pp. 421-47; and (2) Amb 37.5-9, vol. 2, pp. 79-87 || For an
analysis of Amb 21 and 37, see (3) Sherwood, Earlier Ambigua, 45-46; 53-54. See also Ambigua 46-
62, 65-68.
For a ground-breaking study of Maximos’s biblical exegesis, see: Paul Blowers, Exegesis and Spiritual Pedagogy in Maximos
the Confessor: An Investigation of the Questiones ad Thalassium (Notre Dame, 1991).

Wednesday, Dec. 10: Student Conference

*
Course Requirements:
1) Attend all seminar meetings and participate actively in the discussions. Since this course meets
only once a week, there is a zero tolerance policy for absences, i.e., students missing a meeting of the
seminar will lose half a letter grade from their final grade, and for each absence will be required to
submit an additional written assignment.
2) Read and analyze all assigned texts.
3) Computers, etc.: No computers, laptops, tablets, or recording devices of any kind are permitted in
class at any time. All cellphones must be turned off while the seminar is in session.
4) Journal. Students will keep a journal/notebook in which to record their notes on the assigned
readings. (It is strongly suggested that students purchase a separate notebook for this purpose.) Each
assigned reading should be matched by an entry in the journal. Each entry must (a) be dated; should
(b) carefully outline the reading in question; and (c) offer a short reflection on a theme in the
reading. Journals will be periodically collected and examined by the instructor.
5) Study Partner. Each member of the seminar will be assigned a study partner. Study partners will
meet for one hour each week prior to each seminar meeting (after both partners have done the
readings for that week).
6) Prepare and offer at least one seminar presentation. Seminar presentations will normally consist of
outlining and presenting the text under consideration for that day, including analysis of key terms,
and/or a report on an article dealing with a related subject, to be assigned by the instructor.
7) A mid-term (“take-home”) written essay on an aspect of the doctrine of the logoi that interests
you, to be submitted in class on Oct. 8, (8-10 pages in standard format, i.e., Times New Roman, 12
pt., double-spaced).
8) Final paper proposal. Submit a proposal (working title) for your final paper, along with a one-page
thesis statement/abstract and basic bibliography, to the instructor on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
9) Final research paper of 20 pp. (exclusive of notes and bibliography, in standard format, i.e., Times
New Roman, 12 pt., double-spaced), due on Dec. 10, on one of the following topics: (1) Maximos’s
doctrine of the logoi; (2) his theology of divinization; or (3) his understanding of sacred Scripture. If
you choose to write on (1), the final paper may incorporate material from the mid-term essay. Your
paper must work closely with the text and translation of the Ambigua.

Required Texts (available in the bookstore):

Nicholas Constas, On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: St. Maximos the Confessor, The Ambigua,
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, vols. 28-29 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2014).

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Electronic Mailing List
Throughout the semester, additional materials will be sent to you via an electronic mailing list. This
mailing list is the instructor’s primary way to communicate with you outside of class. Students are
asked not to address the class or distribute materials to the class via the electronic mailing list without
prior permission from the instructor.

Instructor: Fr. Maximos (Constas)

Email: maximos.monachos@gmail.com
Assistant: Mr. Nicholas Junes
Office: LO16
Office hours: by appointment

Additional Bibliography
The following items are secondary sources, primarily in English. For a recent bibliography, cataloging more than 3,000
items in multiple languages, see: Mikona Knezevic, Maximus the Confessor (580-662): Bibliography, Bibliographica
serbica theologica, vol. 6 (Belgrade, 2012) (available online).

The Life of St. Maximos the Confessor

For a collection of historical documents pertaining to the life of St. Maximos, see: Pauline Allen & Bronwen
Neil, eds., Maximos the Confessor and His Companions: Documents from Exile (Oxford, 2002) || cf. Christopher
Birchall, trans., The Life of our Holy Father Maximus the Confessor (Boston, 1982) || For a detailed chronology
of the Confessor’s life and works, see: Polycarp Sherwood, An Annotated Date-List of the Works of Maximus the
Confessor (Rome, 1952) || On Maximos’s life and times, see: Aidan Nichols, Byzantine Gospel: Maximos the
Confessor in Modern Scholarship (Edinburgh, 1993), 1-23 || and Andrew Louth, Maximus the Confessor
(London, 1996), 3-46 || On the office of “first secretary,” see: A. Gkoutzioukostas, «Ἡ Ἐξέλιξη τοῦ θεσμοῦ τῶν
ἀσκρῆτις καὶ τοῦ πρωτοασκρῆτις στό πλαίσιο τῆς αὐτοκρατορικῆς γραμματείας,» Byzantina 23 (2002-2003):
47-93 || For historical studies dealing with the trial of St. Maximos, see: Wolfram Brandes, “Juristische
Krisenbewältgung im 7. Jahrhundert? Die Prozesse gegen Papst Martin I. und Maximus Homologetes,” Fontes
Minores 10 (1998): 155-212; || id., “Konstantin der Grosse in den monotheletischen Streitigkeiten des 7.
Jahrhunderts,” in The Dark Centuries of Byzantium (7th – 9th c.), ed. E. Kountoura-Galake (Athens, 2001), 89-
107 || John Haldon, “Ideology and the Byzantine State in the Seventh Century: The ‘Trial’ of Maximos the
Confessor,” in From Late Antiquity to Early Byzantium, ed. V. Vavrinek (Prague, 1985), 87-91 || For the
general historical background, see: Andrew Louth, “St. Maximus the Confessor: Between East and West,”
Studia Patristica 32 (1997): 332-45 || John Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a
Culture (Cambridge, 1990) || Walter Kaegi, Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (Cambridge, 2003) || Gerrit
Reinink & Bernard Stolte, eds., The Reign of Heraclius: Crisis and Confrontation (Leuven, 2002) || Andrew J.
Ekonomou, Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the
Great to Zacharias (Lanham, 2007) || For select papers from the conference “Byzantium in the Seventh
Century,” see: Dumbarton Oaks Papers 13 (1959) || For an inspiring historical novel based on the life of Saint
Maximos, see: Aleka Ritsou, Mάξιμος (Athens, 2009) (in Greek).
For a partial critique of the sources for the Greek Life of St. Maximos, see: Wolfgang Lackner, Studien zur
philosophischen Schultradition und zu den Nemesioszitaten bei Maximos dem Bekenner (Diss., University of Graz,
1962) || and id., “Zu Quellen und Datierung der Maximosvita,” AnBoll 85 (1967): 285-316 || For a
defamatory monothelite version of the life of Maximos, see: Sebastian Brock, “An Early Syriac Life of Maximos
the Confessor,” AnBoll 91 (1973): 299-316; repr. in id., Syriac Perspectives on Late Antiquity (London, 1988),
XII.
For studies on Grecophone ecclesiastical culture in late-antique Palestine, see: Cyril Mango, “Greek Culture in
Palestine after the Arab Conquest,” in Scritture, libri e testi nelle aree provinciali di Bisanzio: atti del seminario di

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Erice (18-25 settembre 1988), 1:149-60 || Guy Stroumsa, “Religious Contacts in Byzantine Palestine,” Numen
36 (1989): 16-42 || Averil Cameron, “The eastern provinces in the seventh century AD: Hellenism and the
emergence of Islam,” ed. S. Said, Hellenismos (Leiden, 1991), 290-93 || Alan Walmsley, “Byzantine Palestine
and Arabia: Urban Prosperity in Late Antiquity,” in Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and
the Early Middle Ages, ed. N. Christie and S.T. Loseby (Leicester: Scolar Press, 1996), 126-148 || Andrew
Louth, “Palestine under the Arabs 650-750,” in The Holy Land, Holy Lands, and Christian History, ed. R.N.
Swanson (London, 2000), 67-77 || Milka Levy-Rubin, “The Role of the Judean Desert Monasteries in the
Monothelite Controversy in Seventh-Century Palestine,” in The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from
the Fifth Century to the Present, ed. Joseph Patrich (Leuven, 2011), 282-300 || Sidney Griffith, “John of
Damascus and the Church in Syria in the Umayyad Era: The Intellectual and Cultural Milieu of Orthodox
Christians in the World of Islam,” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 11 (2011): 207-237 || and, more generally:
Peter Hatlie, “A Rough Guide to Byzantine Monasticism in the Early Seventh Century,” in The Reign of
Heraclius, ed. Reinink (cited above), 205-26.

St. Maximos the Confessor in Ecclesiastical Tradition

Fr. Maximos (Constas), “St. Maximus the Confessor: The Reception of his thought in East and West,” in
Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection, ed. Bishop Maxim Vasilevic (Belgrade & Alhambra,
California, 2013), 25-53 || Jaroslav Pelikan, “The Place of Maximus Confessor in the History of Christian
Thought,” in Maximos Confessor. Actes du Symposium sur Maxime le Confesseur, ed. F. Heinzer and Christoph
Schönborn (Fribourg, Suisse, 1982), 387-402 || Deano Geanakoplos, “Some Aspects of the Influence of the
Byzantine Maximos the Confessor on the Theology of East and West,” Church History 38 (1969): 150-63 ||
see also the Doctrina patrum de incarnatione Verbi, ed. Franz Diekamp (Münster in Westfalen, 1907) = an
important anti-monothelite florilegium compiled by a disciple of St. Maximos || J.H. Declerck, “Les citations
de S. Maxime le Confesseur chez Paul de l’Évergétis,” Byzantion 55 (1985): 91-117 || P. van Deun, “Les
citations de S. Maxime le Confesseur dans les florilége palamite de l’Atheniensis, Bibliothèque Nationale
2583,” Byzantion 57 (1987): 127-57 || id., “Les extraits de Maxime le Confesseur contenus dans les chaînes sur
le Nouveau Testament,” Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 25 (1994): 169-73.
The Greek Philokalia contains 4 works by St. Maximos: (1) The Chapters on Love (= 400 chapters); (2) On
Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God (= 200 chapters); (3) Various Texts on Theology, the
Divine Economy, and Virtue and Vice (= 500 chapters); and (4) On the Lord’s Prayer. In the Philokalia, the work
(3) Various Texts is presented as a continuation of (2), but is in fact a separate work, being an 11th- or 12th-
century anthology of Maximos’s writings (along with a small number of excerpts from Dionysios the
Areopagite) || On the Philokalia, see: Met. Kallistos Ware, “Philocalie,” Dictionnaire de Spiritualité (Paris
1984), vol. 12Α, pp. 1336-52 || id., “The Spirituality of the Philokalia,” Sobornost 13 (1991): 6-24 || id., Ἡ
Ἐσωτερική ἑνότητα καί ἡ ἐπίδραση τῆς Φιλοκαλίας σέ Ἀνατολή καί Δύση (Athens 2004) || and id., “St Nikodemos
and the Philokalia,” in Mount Athos: the Sacred Bridge, ed. Demetri Conomos & Graham Speake (Oxford
2005), 69-121.

St. Maximos in Orthodox Iconography

Edmond Voordeckers, “L’iconographie de saint Maxime le Confesseur dans l’art des Églises de rite byzantin,”
in Philohistor (Leuven, 1994), 339-59 || P. van Deun, “Suppléments à l’iconographie de Maxime le Confesseur
dans les arts byzantin et slave,” in La spiritualité de l’univers byzantin dans le verbe et l’image. Hommages offerts à
Edmond Voordeckers (Leiden, 1997), 315-31 || see also: Doula Mouriki, The Mosaics of Nea Moni (Athens,
1985), 1:176.

The Ambigua to John: Texts and Translations

Texts/Editions: Thomas Gale, Joannis Scoti Erigenae de Divisione Naturae libri quinque diu desiderati. Accedit
Appendix ex Ambiguis S. Maximi graece et latine (Oxford, 1681). As an appendix to his edition of Eriugena’s
Periphyseon, Gale published the Ambigua to Thomas and a portion (i.e., the Prologue and Amb 6 through Amb
10.3) of the Ambigua to John (Appendix, pp. 1-45 = Ambigua to John [= PG 91:1061-1116D]; pp. 46-70 =
Ambigua to Thomas) || Franz Öhler, Sancti Patris nostri Maximi Confessoris de variis difficilibus locis SS. PP.
Dionysii et Gregorii ad Thomam V.S. librum ex codice manuscripto Gudiano descripsit et in Latinum sermonem

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interpretatus post I. Scoti et Th. Gale tentamina nunc primum integrum edidit, Anecdota graeca, Tomus I (Halle,
1857) = Ambigua to Thomas and Ambigua to John || J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca (=PG) vol. 91 (Paris,
1860), cols. 1032-1417 = reprint of Öhler’s edition || see now the critical edition of the Ambigua to Thomas by
Bart Janssens, Maximi Confessoris, Ambigua ad Thomam, Epistula secunda ad eundem, Corpus Christianorum,
Series gracea 48 (Turnhout-Leuven, 2002), pp. 3-34 || and the critical edition by Nicholas Constas (Fr.
Maximos), On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: Maximos the Confessor, The Ambigua to Thomas and The
Ambigua to John, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, 2 vols (= DOML vols. 28-29) (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2014).

Τranslations: Latin (ca. 862-864): John Eriugena, ed. Édouard Jeauneau, Maximi Confessoris, Ambiguorum
ad Iohannem Latin interpretatio, CCSG 18 (Turnhout-Leuven, 1988) || Modern Greek: Ignatios Sakalis,
Φιλοσοφικὰ καὶ θεολογικὰ ἐρωτήματα (Περὶ διαφόρων ἀποριῶν τῶν ἁγίων Διονυσίου καὶ Γρηγορίου) τοῦ ἁγίου
Μαξίμου τοῦ Ὁμολογητοῦ, vol. 1, series = Ἐπὶ τὰς πηγάς, vol. 1, ed. Panayiotis Nellas (Athens, 1978) = Amb 1
through Amb 10.30 [1128D]; the projected second volume was never published || Romanian: Dumitru
Staniloae, Sfîntul Maxim Mãrturisitorul Ambigua (Bucharest, 1983) || English: Panayiotis Nellas, Deification
in Christ: The Nature of the Human Person, trans. Norman Russel (New York, 1987 [1979, 1982bis]) = Amb
21.7-9; 41.1-9; 42.31-32 (paraphrased) || Modern Greek: Ignatios Sakalis, Μαξίμου τοῦ Ὁμολογητοῦ, Περὶ
διαφόρων ἀποριῶν, in the series: Φιλοκαλία τῶν νηπτικῶν καὶ ἀσκητικῶν, vols. 14Δ-14Ε, ed. P. Chrestou
(Thessaloniki, 1992-1993) || French: Emmanuel Ponsoye, Saint Maxime le Confesseur, Ambigua (Paris,
1994) || English: Andrew Louth, Maximos the Confessor (London and New York, 1996) = Amb 1, 5, 10, 41,
71 || Italian : Claudio Moreschini, Massimo il Confessore, Ambigua: Problemi metafisici e teologici su testi di
Gregorio di Nanzianzo e Dionigi Areopagita (Milan, 2003) || English: Paul Blowers and Robert Wilken, On the
Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ. Selected Writings of St. Maximos the Confessor (Crestwood, 2003) = Amb 7
(Wilken); Amb 8 and Amb 42 (partial) (Blowers) || Russian: Nektarios Yashunskiy, О различных
недоумениях у святых Григория и Дионисия, Bibliotheca Ignatiana (Мoscow, 2006) | A.M. Shufrin, in
Максим Исповедник. Полемика с оригенизмом и моноэнергизмом, Византийская философия (St. Petersburg,
2007) = Amb 7 || English: Joshua Lollar, Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to Thomas, Second Letter to Thomas
(Brepols, 2009) = Amb 1-5 || English: Nicholas Constas (= Fr. Maximos), On Difficulties in the Church
Fathers: Maximos the Confessor, The Ambigua to Thomas and The Ambigua to John, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval
Library, 2 vols (= DOML vols. 28-29) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2014).

The Doctrine of the Logoi

For a helpful, general introduction to the question, see: John Meyendorff, “The Cosmic Dimension of
Salvation,” in id., Christ in Eastern Christian Tradition (Washington & Cleveland, 1969; repr. Crestwood,
1975), chap. 7 || For an English translation of the acta of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, see: Richard Price, The
Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553, 2 vols (Liverpool, 2009), especially, vol. 2, pp. 270-86 = Appendix
1: “The Anti-Origenist Canons” = translation of the canons and the Letter of Justinian to the Council || F.X.
Murphy, “Evagrius Ponticus and Origenism,” in Origeniana Tertia, ed. Richard Hanson and Henri Crouzel
(1981): 253-69 || Luke Dysinger, “The Logoi of Providence and Judgment in the Exegetical Writings of
Evagrius Ponticus,” Studia Patristica 37 (2001): 462-71 || Polycarp Sherwood, “Maximus and Origenism.
ΑΡΧΗ καὶ ΤΕΛΟΣ,” Berichte zum XI. internationalen Byzantinisten-Kongress (Munich, 1958), III/1, 1-26 ||
The best discussion of Maximos’s doctrine of the logoi is by Eric Perl, “Methexis: Creation, Incarnation,
Deification in Saint Maximus Confessor” (Ph.D. diss., Yale, 1991), chap. 5 || see also: Lars Thunberg,
“Creation by the Word,” in his Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the
Confessor (Chicago, 1995), 72-83 || Paul Blowers, “The Logology of Maximos the Confessor in his Criticism
of Origenism,” in Origeniana Quinta (Leuven, 1992), 570-76 || Hans Urs von Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy: The
Universe According to Maximos the Confessor (San Francisco, 2003), esp. chap. 3 || Stephen Gersh, From
Iamblichus to Eriugena: An Investigation of the Prehistory of the Evolution of the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition
(Leiden, 1978) || Adam Cooper, “Ambiguum 7: A Dynamic Ontology,” in his The Body in St. Maximos the
Confessor: Holy Flesh, Wholly Deified (Oxford, 2005), 74-95 || The monograph by G.C. Tympas, Carl Jung and
Maximus the Confessor on Psychic Development (London, 2014), contains insightful discussions of the doctrine
of the logoi || see also: Paul Blowers, “Bodily Inequality, Material Chaos, and the Ethics of Equilization in
Maximus the Confessor,” Studia Patristica 42 (2006): 51-56 = on Ambigua 7, 8, and Letter 2 || id., “On the

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‘Play’ of Divine Providence in Gregory Nazianzen and Maximus the Confessor,” in Re-Reading Gregory of
Nazianzus, ed. C. Beelley (Washington, D.C., 2012), 199-217 = on Amb 71 || Torstein Tollefsen, “The Logos,
the logoi, and Created Beings,” in his The Christocentric Cosmology of St. Maximus the Confessor (Oxford,
2008), 64-137 || For studies on special topics, see: Joshua Lollar, To See into the Life of Things: The
Contemplation of Nature in Maximos the Confessor’s Ambigua to John (Turhnhout, 2013 = Ph.D. diss., Notre
Dame, 2011) || J.-C. Larchet, “La conception maximienne des énergies divines et des logoi et la théorie
platonicienne des idées,” Philotheos 4 (2004): 276-283 || V. Cvetkovic, “St. Maximus on πάθος and κίνησις in
Ambiguum 7,” Studia Patristica 48 (2010): 95-104 || C. Berger, “The Logoi and the Uncreated Energies,” pp.
400-403, in his, “A Contemporary Synthesis of St. Maximus’ Theology: The Work of Fr. Dumitru Staniloae,”
in Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection, 389-405 || Michael Butler, “Perception of the Logoi
and Cure of the Soul in St. Maximus the Confessor,” Edification: The Transdisciplinary Journal of Christian
Psychology 6.2 (2012): 114-24.

Theosis/Divinization
The most important monograph on Maximos’s theology of theosis/divinization is: Jean-Claude Larchet, La
divinisation de l’homme selon saint Maxime le Confesseur (Paris, 1988) || see also: Lars Thunberg, “Deification:
The Purpose of Human Life,” in his Microcosm and Mediator, 427-32 || Norman Russel, “Maximus the
Confessor,” in his The Doctrine of Deification in Greek Patristic Theology (Oxford, 2004), 262-95 || Eric Perl,
“’… That Man Might Become God’: Central Themes in Byzantine Theology,” in Heaven on Earth: Art and the
Church in Byzantium, ed. Linda Safran (University Park, 1998), 39-57 || “Elena Vishnevskaya, “Divinization as
Perichoretic Embrace in Maximus the Confessor,” in Partakers of Divine Nature: The History and Development
of Deificaiton in Christian Traditions, ed. Michael J. Christensen & Jeffery A. Wittung (Madison, 2007), 132-45
|| On the figure of Melchizedek as an Old Testament type of deified humanity, see: Julian Stead, “The
Patriarchs as Models of the Christian Life according to St. Maximus the Confessor in the Ambigua,” Patristic
and Byzantine Review 15 (1996-97): 141-49 || and E. Jeauneau, “La figure de Melchisédek chez Maxime le
Confesseur,” in Autour de Melchisédech: Myth-Réalités-Symbole (Chartres, 2000), 51-59 || See also: Panayiotis
Christou, “Maximus the Confessor on the Infinity of Man,” in Fribourg Symposium (1982), 261-72 || Pascal
Mueller-Jourdan, “’Where’ and ‘When’ as Metaphysical Prerequisites for Creation in Ambiguum 10,” in
Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection, 287-96 || Carlos Steel, “Maximus Confessor on
Theory and Praxis: A Commentary on Ambigua ad Iohannem 10.1-19,” in Theoria, Praxis and the
Contemplative Life after Plato and Aristotle, ed. Thomas Benatouil & Mauro Bonazzi (Brill, 2012), 229-257 ||
Andrew Louth, “The Transfiguration in the Theology of St. Maximus the Confessor” (unpublished paper,
available online) || See also: Paul Collins, Partaking in Divine Nature: Deification and Communion (New York,
2010).

Theological Anthropology
For an important source of Maximos’s anthropology, see: Nemesius of Emesa, On the Nature of Man
(Liverpool, 2008) || For a classic monograph dealing with Maximos’s anthropology, see: Lars Thunberg,
Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor (2nd ed., Chicago, 1995) || On
the division of the sexes, see: Édouard Jeauneau, “La division des sexes chez Grégoire de Nysse et chez Jean
Scot Érigène,” in Eriugena: Studien zu seinen Quellen (Heidelberg, 1980), 35-54 || Adrian Guiu, “Christology
and Philosophical Culture in Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41,” Studia Patristica 48 (2010): 111-16 ||
Doru Costache, “Seeking out the Antecedents of the Maximian Theory of Everything: St. Gregory the
Theologian’s Oration 39,” Phronema 26 (2011): 27-46; || id., “Living above Gender: Insights from St.
Maximos the Confessor,” JECS 21 (2013): 261-90; || and K. Milkov, “Maximus and the Healing of the Sexual
Division of Creation,” in Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection, 427-36 || See also: Hans
Boersma, Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach (Oxford, 2013), chap. 3 (=
“Gendered Body”) || See also, more generally: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Anthropology in Theological Perspective
(London & New York, 1999).

Sacred Scripture and its Interpretation

7
For an important study of Maximos’s biblical exegesis, see: Paul Blowers, Exegesis and Spiritual Pedagogy in
Maximos the Confessor: An Investigation of the Questiones ad Thalassium (Notre Dame, 1991) || see also: id.,
“The Analogy of Scripture and Cosmos in Maximos the Confessor,” Studia Patristica 27 (1993): 145-49 || id.,
“The Anagogical Imagination: Maximos the Confessor and the Legacy of Origenian Hermeneutics,” in
Origeniana Sexta (Leuven, 1995), 639-54 || id., “The World in the Mirror of Holy Scripture: Maximos the
Confessor’s Short Hermeneutical Treatise in Ambiguum ad Joannem 37,” in id., ed., In Dominico Eloquio–In
Lordly Eloquence: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert Louis Wilken (Grand Rapids, 2002), 408-26 ||
id., “Entering ‘This Sublime and Blessed Amphitheatre’: Contemplation of Nature and the Interpretation of
the Bible in the Patristic Period,” in Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions, ed. J.M. van der Meer & S.
Mandelbrote (Leiden, 2008), vol. 1, 147-76; 154-56; 164-66 || P. Sherwood, “Exposition and Use of Scripture
in St. Maximos as Manifest in the Quaestiones ad Thalassium,” OCP 24 (1958): 202-7 || George Berthold,
“Levels of Scriptual Meaning in Maximos the Confessor,” Studia Patristica 27 (1993): 129-44 || Adam
Cooper, “Maximos the Confessor and the Structural Dynamics of Revelation,” VigChr 55 (2001): 161-86 ||
George Berthold, “Maximus Confessor: Theologian of the Word,” in Handbook of Patristic Exegesis: The Bible
in Ancient Christianity, ed. Charles Kannengiesser (Leiden, 2004), 942-71 || Assad Kattan, Verleiblichung und
Synergie. Grundzüge der Bibelhermeneutik bei Maximus Confessor (Leiden, 2003) || id., “The Christological
Dimension of Maximus Confessor’s Biblical Hermeneutics,” Studia Patristica 42 (2006): 169-174 || Adrian
Guiu, “’Reading the Two Books”: Exegesis and Natural Contemplation in the Periphyseon” (Brepols: at
press), 263-90.

For the views of Neoplatonic writers on the interpretation of texts, see: Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs,
trans. Robert Lamberton (Barrington, 1983), 21-40 || Robert Lamberton, Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist
Allegorical Readings and the Growth of the Epic Tradition (Berkeley, 1986), 319-324 || David Dawson,
Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria (Berkeley, 1992), esp. 38-52 (= “Reading
Homer as an Allegorical Poet”) || Jean Pépin, “The Platonic and Christian Ulysses,” in Neoplatonism and
Christian Thought, ed. D.J. O’Meara (Albany, 1982), 3-18 || Pierre Hadot, “Théologie, Exégèse, Révélation,
Écriture dans la philosophie grecque,” in Les règles de l’interprétation, ed. M. Tardieu (Paris, 1987), 13-34 ||
and Jesper Svenbro, Phrasikleia. An Anthropology of Reading in Ancient Greece (Ithaca, 1993).