" Volume 46 ISSN 0042-6032 A review of early christian life and language Vigiliae Christianae editors-in-chief associate editors |J. den Boeft, Leiderdorp M. Anastos, Los Angeles R. van den Broek, Utrecht A. Davids, Nijmegen A. F. J. Klijn, Groningen R. M. Grant, Chicago G. Quispel, Utrecht Marguerite Harl, Paris J.C, M. van Winden, Leiden R. Staats, Kiel BEN FNS \ WAY 6 1995 2x0, suit l E. J. BRILL LeidenI, Leiden, The Netherlands © Copyright 1992 by B. J this book may be hotoprint, microfilm, microfiche ten permission from the publisher ‘or any other means without ‘CONTENTS n philosophischen Grundlagen der Lehrew CONTENTS BoULNO'S, M-O., se BURNS Braun, R Contre Marcion I et T(E. P. Meiering) ique des Can igus Ft eM. Sie d’Atexandrie, Leties Pestales EVI (3. C. M. van ime et la Chaine If (3. Dillon) ""Drohung und Verkessung (A. ‘La Passion inédite de S. Arhénogine de Pédachihos en Canpadoce Meijer : Maseavo .F., Reformer Sehlasik und prstitche Thesoge(. C. M van C. M. van Winden) .C., Augustine's Conversion (i. den Boett) 299 an 2309 8 428 38 eae! coNTENTS Tenax, A., Les Geuvres de Philon d’Alexandrie 36: Alexander (3. C. M. van Winden) 94 Yat Deo, P. Maxim Conese Opus expec da (3. Mi vas Winds) 102 sos, M. A s0e Cove es ttn 2 fs 575 28) fase 11 (G3. M arin Books rstved ; i150 eI. aK the present writer has Athanasius’ Leiter when writing his own Libelus. single Athanasius says a mere dozen lines before the passage under dui rendu cent, de ce quia endu soixante et dece quia rendu 10-12) is the souree of Jerome's statement would accordingly appear nection Jerome makes between Canticle and the aphor < he ore oni a asbenabsrved above how he improvet cet Cy iple use of sources is of course ent 7 achieves afar more powerful imo dizeet citation of serptue. University of Nebraska Dept of Classics 237 Andrew’s Hall Lincoin NE 68588-0337 USA. Christianae 46 (192), MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR, GREGORY OF NYSSA, AND THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRES! By PAUL M. BLOWERS in the theologi NNyssa'—has been ated exten: Cappadocian’s do I has given rise to a diversity of tions, each claiming to discover the primary purpose or rat is theme. Three prominent interpretations of the moti ticular, have emerged in modern scholarship on Gregory. Jean Daniélou’s tour de force on Gregory’s spirituality, Platonisme je mystique (1944),' which profound generation of French scholarship on the Nyssene bishop, locates the theme of eternal progress primar in the framework of vita Moysis and commentary In Canticum Canticorum. For Daniélou, epektasis represents the process of perfection in general, but is an expression par excellence of Gregory's third stage of spiritual develop- ment, the ““darkness’”* wherein the soul’s indefatigable yearning for God stands in perpetual tension with God’s inexhaus mystery. The upshot is a continuous conve frustration, an ongoing process of mystical union with God, with every spiritual advance being merely a new beginning in the never-ending mystery. Daniélou discovers here a lasting contribution to the history of an ascetic recasting of the Pauline doctrine of the jer pattern of salvation history to the ‘nuances in Gregory’s thought, Die Unendlichkeit Gottes bei Gregor von132 PAUL M. LOWERS Nyssa (1966),* Ekkehard Muhlenberg took Daniélou’s thesis to task, arguing that in his analysis of the concept of perpetual progress he was introducing an anachronistic (medieval Western) idea of mystical union into Gregory's thought.’ Focusing attention more on the Contra Eunomium as a key to understanding the bishop of Nyssa’s later spiritual writings, MUhlenberg’s study attempts to ground the notion of Perpetual progress more squarely in Gregor; and his criticism of classi up in the course of his di ipping logical corollary the infinity of the human ascent to God: God's absolute transcendence is not an object for despair, and, once acknowledged rationally, does not frustrate the soul’s innate and never-ending desire (tus) for God." In turn, the diastemic gulf between infinite God and finite creatures is not just a for human knowledge of God, but an open field of of eternal movement and self-re ment has been variously cr Gregory's ideas on divine infin eeging too much on the exposition of divine transcendence in the Contra Eunomium,' and for underestimating Gregory’s absolute apophaticism."' But his mapping out of philosophical issues in 's theology of transcendence remains quite valuable in the ion of the intellectual underpinnings of the concept of epektasis, Advocates of a third approach to the epektasis its roots principally within Gregor of Origenism. Suggested preliminarily in studies by Endre von Ivnk this thesis has been worked out in some detail by Ronald 1975 monograph Perfection in the Virtuous Life: A Stud) tion between Edification and Poler reme have discerned ism into Gregory's epektasis. mé account of the work of Mahlenberg and others who have uncovered deeper philosophical undercurrents in Gregory's ascetic writings, argues through close textual analysis of the De vita Moysis that the thrust of the theme is Gregory’s polemic against Origenism. In a word, the con- cept of perpetual progress aims at overcoming the that the primordial fall of souls was based on a sat THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS 133 divine Good, and the necessary implication of human mutability and the limitedness of i such a satiation to take place. the strength of deseribing Gregory's no a distinctly Christian context without isolating his spiritual anthropology from its broader and philosophical foundations, or exclusive, may be sul cient to betray the extensive application of the theme in Gregory's theology. It is a faceted theme with roots in pre- Cappados To the extent that one can trace it beyond the Cappadocians, the work of Maximus the Confessor looms especi large; traces of the theme can be found in the Byzantine theological tradition even as late as Gregory Palamas."” Maximus had more than a ‘passing interest in this notion in Gregory's thought, and was, through his assiduous reading of the Nyssene’s writings, kn ill argue here that the mn of “perpetual progress”” was preponderant in, though not exhaustive of, Maximus’s appropriation of it. He did not ‘mechanically take over Gregory's epektasis, but explored tions and reworked the concept in the long process of articulating logical doctrine. He approached the lemical, philosophical, and ascetic or mysti- all of which merit closer scrutiny. ‘That Maximus, following upon the achievement of the Cappado- cians, undertook in his own wi i the ground-breaking work of Polycarp Sherwood over on the Confessor's Ambigua ad Joannem.' Sherwood indeed acknowledged Maximus’s deference to the author Gregory of Nyssa in elaborating his own criticism of Origenism, though its abiding importance to Maximus.'* Max- ration of Gregory's notion of perpetual progress can be traced in his response to three integral problems of Origenist doc- jon of creaturely muti ty of souls. fe Gregory, particularly repulsed by the idea of a Y (xép09) experienced by intellectual beings already united to God,”* and the very possibility that a mind could become sated in the con-136 PAUL M, LOWERS In Ambiguum 7, response to the satiety postul fe movement of the soul in relation jod. One of his basic arguments runs as Fes are movable, and ‘Maximus had set forth his most ex by appealing to the eternal apps supreme desirable, ultimately desires, then indeed no creature has stopped moving in its * One of the pre because the soul would be seen as fully encompassing its object. But God, whe infinite (xeizes) and honorable, by nature stret- ches to équocv) the appetite of those who enjoy him through par eso. Maximus directly echoes here a central passage in the De vita Moysis, where Gregory parallels the absolute goodness and infinity proper to God's nature finite desire for him, which is the fun- Certainly whoever tue participates in nothing other than God, because he is himself absolute virtue. Since, then, those who know what is good by nature desire and since this good has sarily has no stopping place Gregory's verb here for the infinite stretching out of desire alongside the limitless God is cyyxapaceivai. Maximus, in a word of encouragement to his friend Marinus, praises him precisely for “stretching out (au- apareivov) your movement, in your desire for God, alongside God’s Elsewhere he praises him for “making énéxeasic the life's course, and ever-moving ascent (devxivysos &vob0s) toward the Logos the goal of your reason." Maximus’s use of tnixcasis here as a ferminus technicus for perpetual Godward progress is striking, since the noun is so used by Gregory himself only once,” his reference being for various forms of the verb éxexzeiveu, This notion of an endless stretching forth of the human desire (Zu; ‘x6t0s; &xOvula) for God as roused by the natural infinity of God, @ Imark of Gregory's doctrine, not only afforded Maximus a proven "THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS 15, ‘weapon against the Origenist idea of a s certain high ideals of his ascetic and mys jety of the Good but evoked sal theology.” The dramatic irtue and knowledge, as directly ly shows where the polemical edge of the concept is mediately in view.** Deification itself is projected as fe process realized by a God whose power and activity knows no bounds.** Nor is there any li the “incarnation” of Chris virtues of those whose spiritual growth merits insatiably satisfied with the one who is inexhaustible.”” Elsewhere Maximus speaks, in terms clearly reminiscent of Gregory, of the soul’s innate concupiscible and irascible faculties being transformed from misdirected passions into powers of perpetual desire for God. Concupiscence is to be transmuted into a divine love (xs) and anger into “spiritual fervency (Céate rvequaruet), red-hot eternal movement (idvpos madness (edgpuv the Origenist xép0s, mediate and practical threat of struggle." Answering a query on Exodus 4:24-26 from his fi Libyan hegumen Thalassius, Maximus allegorizes the story of Moses, en. route to Egypt, being threatened at an inn by his son was uncircumcised. As in Gregory's cl ‘more cast as the archetypal monk who must persevere undistracted on the road of virtue, the moral race-course: ‘The mind which is faithful in this divine mi invariably trave the moral race, the weakness of ‘The scriptural reference from Phi156 PAUL. RLOWERS petual progress” ily polemical ‘against the (0 suggest hed in the Good, could not again fall away from it through the same satiation.” There could not be, in effect, any per- manent fixedness in the Good. Maximus rejects the prospective Origenist rejoinder that the Good could only be fully enjoyed through the experience of its contrary, and reaches into the true root of the problem of satiety: Gregory's answer to this Greek patristic anthropolog » Gregory refuses to admit the fateful Platonic (and Origenist) equation of change wi tes instead a positive form of changeabi of the Good i to an eternal transformat imilation to God.** In his twelfth homily In Ce Gregory dramatically portrays the free will as caught between the upward movement or change of the spirit and the downward movement of the body, such that change will carry the day.*’ Established in the higher mode of change, human beings enter a process of constant recreation through virtue, cir true ontological and eschati ‘moral change for the better and ascent the perfection of human nature consists Perhaps in its very growth in goodnes ‘THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROCRESS" st Maximus’s solution to the problem of mutability is uniquely his found in a passage from a letter to John of tly pejorative terms as moral jon (ipyia qua) perfected? Deviance, ‘occasions employs spor in a quasi-genetic sense to describe an innate for deviation, observing that mutability of created things which simply distinguishes them from the Creator's pure stal typically, as in the text quoted above, he relegates mutat the moral order, the domain of “gnor In his own treatment of the Origenist problem of mutabi Maximus circumvents Gregory of Nyssa’s proposal of an eternally ‘mutability. The reasons for this become clearer when one forges deeper into Maximus’s own anthropology. For Gregory, by postulating a kind of perpetual amelioration that simply overlays the human pen- chant for evil, does not ipso facto eradicate the pos or a future deviation from virtue. There is, moreover, in which the experience of evil is, even in Gregory, a quasi-necessary138 PAUL M, RLOWERS corollary of the infinite desire for God." Moreover, by identifying the eternal reformation in virtue with the very essence of the creature, Gregory can be interpreted as grounding the ultimate ontological stability of human beings solely on their own, uncertain moral move- ments. This, of course, is the burden of Maximus, not Gregory. Gregory’s optimistic a in the Good, not on the prospect of future lapses." Maximus was ostensibly confronted by a recalcitrant Origenism (or more accurately Evagrianism) within some monastic circles of his own time,” which was still inducing the monks to pin their hopes for true spiritual stability on a future intellectual i te that there is already @ certain immuts ible to human beings, bestowed by grace in the very fabric of human nature itself. The fron- tiers of human free choice (zpoaigeas) and moral movement are already so long as natural principle, indeed which is not destroyed by deviation, but continues to stabilize the human advance toward Got The matter of eschatological stability, so integr ‘moral mutabil related to that of imax of Maximus’s own reappra predecessor that “eternal movement around the Divine (j nept x8 Gefov Gevavnaia) stems from the very essence of the soul, as a const bviprua guaveh. Yet own contemporary debate with Origenism, Particularly with his eschatology as caricatured in the famous anathemas of the 533 Council of Constantinople, Maximus sought to establish that there was indeed a repose, of the moral -ved, but that it must be an authentic, y in God—that is, not an éxoxacéaraais if that was to only the recovery of an unstable stasis of pre-existent souls. How could the eternal movement of creatures thus be reco! with a final and “real” stasis? Gregory had proposed at this point an absolute and infi ite paradox, human ONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS 139 vita Moysis, he unfolds the true mystery of Moses’s stance upon the rock in Exodus 33:21 more immovable one remains in the Good, the more he pro- the course of virtue." a certain inexplicable observed in the fact that ment, and eternal movemé unmoved (15 xij xeodues Gi duuxionson) is shown From Maximus’s viewpoint, however, this paradox is ultimately unsatisfactory, since it can only mean that either the stasis or the movement will not be fully genuine. Logi speaking, the two contraries cannot indefinitely co-exist in their pure form. Tals own answer to this paradox i a sophisticated one, and must be viewed from a variety of texts which show both the depth of his under- standing of Gregory's notion of perpetual progress, and his attempt to reach toward an even clearer understanding, one free of any latent Orige the first place, eternal progress, as an essential energy of the soul inviolable principle. For this reason ‘Maximus cannot conceive of a time or an acon when the soul would not bbe progressing, since, as was seen above, the infinity of God perpetually stretches out the human desire for him. Maximus, like Gregory, envi- sions, beyond spatio-temporal realty, a participated eternity distinct God like that of the angels. Sometimes Maximus employs the oxymoron “ever-moving repose”” (avdats deixivmroc) to describe this exalted state of being. An especially evocative des ‘comes in Quaestiones ad Thalassium 65, where Maximus speaks of this ever-moving repose and. the oxymoron ical m160 PAULM, mLoweRs the Pscudo-Dionysian imagery of the “unswerving and unerring eternal teadfast eternal movement” (dxduvig desxomsta) of the Seraphim in the celesti y."* Gregory t00 has occasior sublime activity of the Sera never-resting flight and th pure paradox of movement and repose in terms which Maximus is wont to resist In a det in Maximus, Paul lass has demonstrated how the Confessor reworks the categories of time, extension, and aeonic existence in an effort to describe ‘an indescribable state. This moving rest presupposes a kind of extension (Gdorma) that is beyond yp6vos and yet short of God's Own utter timelessness: a temporal timelessness or aeon, a moving motionlessness.** On this plane, a creature enjoys “eterné knowledge, by knowledge to enduring ‘nowledge, by enduring knowledge to truth, the and knowledge, lunceasing movemer knowledge whose a “TE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS! 161 infinity around God, but there is always and unabatedly a relational movement toward God propelled by sheer love." never began them.”* Sherwood claims to find a fairly consis would be wrong to infer here a kind To be sure, as Stephen Gersh has cautioned, of “mysterious transition”” between two disparate go: 10 a fully deified state in sequential terms, as when he borrows nal imagery of eschatological “Day: demonstrate the concurrence of nat In his speculation on human origins, he ha ry and transcendence overlap, a creature's natural course is vindicated; the natural faculties come to term precisely in the Passage to a higher, divinized state. In describing deification, Maximus can thus speak of the completion of a creature's natural faculties, and the attainment of a supernatural mode of existence, as a single transcen- however, where12 PAULM, BLOWERS completed in nature, our proper fe no way results from our natural abi capable of grasping what transcend: nature capable of inducing defication, ing God. with supernatural li above its proper Maximus wants to show that ind, by the superiority of its glory, ele i in excess of glory final “rest” is real, and yet in the ive: the stasis is not an utter cess ; jon,"” a “‘sabbath”’,”* and a transforma- tion.” To be sure, there are passages where Maximus appears 10 absolutize the projected repose of natural powers, in the of avoiding Gregory’s language of a pure paradox of ress and change or a settled state of sameness. Alluding directly to a metaphor in the De principiis 7) of Origen, Maximus distinguishes corporeal and spiritual sustenance, and declares that in where Maximus alludes to the natural powers ceasing as a person undergoes spiritual ecstasy, wider perspective of the logi and spiritual progression (motion) which obtains in dimension of “ jonary eternal movement.’ 1us's reconstruction of epektasis appears in the ights of his predecessors and offer a new refinement of his ‘own, Maximus recovers the Origenist ideal that the aspirations of all steady eternal progress to the divinely appointed flog of human {THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS 163, existence, But Maximus further stabilizes the process by modifying Gregory's notion of endless positive change (spori) with the characterization of pure movement as perfect conformity of a creature's mode (spénos) of movement to its natural principle (byos gistax) as to be contented with Gregory's explores further nuances in the idea of a transcendent and atemporal ing repose or stationary eternal move- ment of creatures in their final translation to the state of grace. This, vision of the end therefore achieves two things. It answers the radical leology, wherein rational beings simply revert to the psarian repose of the primordial henad, by suggesting that the end, deification, is an advance to a supernatural st never known ot attained under any previous economy. And it corrects the Nyssene ideal of an eternal, unsatiated, and seemingly indefinite pro- gress to God by projecting an ultimate sating of human desire, and a ‘gradual reposing or stabilizing of creaturely movement."* mark of the concept of the paradox of stopping and moving. In Gregory of Nyssa, it is really a paradox of eternal ion and eternal advance, and as A.H. Armstrong notes, itis not logical price: the endlessness of God makes him absolutely unknowable ‘move round same philosophical 1¢ elevated creature in a dimension of moving . where the natural faculties come to rest to conclude that Maximus transcends the paradox by jon between nature and grace, and introducing ‘natural” rest, (© another164 PAULM,sLowans the infinity around God, and the sublime motion into God by grace (culminating in “‘ecstasy”), are held together by Maxi simultaneous perfections; there is no extension or m} between them, as the natural and supernatural destiny is one in God. In the second place, although not want rnciples of nature and grace or undermine the superior ter,"* Maximus does not, any more than Gregory, operate ifurcation of nature and grace, as in certain schools jature”” opens ie frontier between created and uncreated reality extending to is the open-ended and “graced” realm of participation in God. Gregory sees the final repose of creatures being a perpetual becoming, morally and ontologically, as human nature opens itself certain important modifications, Maximus looks to retain the principl of open-ended existence in dé natural facul -ncouragement’ acquired knowledge of God’s attributes.” Ecstasy entails complete divine grace, yet the personal will always subsists, operating with the divine will." Maximus consistently denies any mystical absorption such as would violate the Méyoc gst; of a human being, If Maximus has a philosophical resol of eternal rest and eternal progres: tle piece of Chri of the Gregorian paradox in created things, which he brings to a rest. But there is a third perspective, where these two apparent opposites are reconciled by the simultaneity of transcendence and immanence within God himself.” So too “the context of simulta- ‘neous transcendence and immanence can include created things which have achieved their end of motion and thus transcended the physical state, and on this basis it is easy to see that the final rest is not simply THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS" 6s the opposite of motion but its elevation to a higher level.""™ Indeed, it would be nonsensical to deduce that human beings could ever become “‘unmoved”” as God himself is immovable.”* To conclude, it must be reiterated that while the concept of epektasis was at the heart of the struggle against radical Origenism, it was as such not only of Gregory of Nyssa’s significance in the overcoming of extremist elements in Origenist thought, but of the fact that he was precious reading among the monks, Maximus critically examined the teachings of his venerable predecessor, working out for himself the dynamics of rest and motion, immanence and transcendence, activity nature and grace, in the véhog of creaturely asp ‘ology, a new insight into the mystery of deifi ions for the monks’ comprehension of the goals trenchancy. As in Gregory, the integrity of his speculations seemed to precisely in his to hold in balance the dogmatico-polemical, Novss66 PAULM. LOWERS 161. Milenberg notes that, conta Plato, Gregory segregated fous and ‘The soul's erotic yearning for God is not diminished or discouraged by a comps of God's distance because his infinity, properly speaking, is beyond knowledge. * A.H. Armstrong, review of Mablenberg, Die Unendichkeit Gottes bei Gregor von Nossa, in Journal of Theological Studies N.S. 2 (1971): 237-240, "Charles Kannengisser, ‘‘L'infnité divine chez Grégoire de Nysse," Recherches de sulence religieuse 55 (1961): 55-65 "Robert Brightman, "“Apophatic Theology and Divine Inti Nyssa," Greek Orthodox Theologica! Review 18 "CE. Endre von Ivinks, Plato Chrisianus: Obernahme und Ung Platonismus durch die Vater (Finsiedln: JohannesVerle, Hellenisches und Christichesim frahbyzantnischen 49-53, To my knowledge, von Ivénka was the first to draw serious attention to the possibilty that the concept of “perpetual progres” in Gregory was directed against the Origenist notion of satiety (pod) ty im St. Gregory of, sp. 71.97. Tha the obviaton ofthe dpa idea ofthe Origenists had ps Gregory's notion of epektais is acknowledged by Dat ns of von Ivdnka, but ou in deferring tothe observa- interpretation (cf. Patonisme ef théologie mystique, 2 troduction to From Glory to Glory, 70). Mihlenberg {00 (Die Unendichkeit, 16, 173.4) doesnot deny that the problem of in Gregory's idea ofan endless ascent toward the infinite God, but is Ivdnka for an inadequate grasp ofthe philosophical conception of divine informs Gregory's response to Origenism on this point '* On these roots see Everett Ferguson, “God's Infinity and Man's Mutabiliy: Perpetu Progress according to Gregory of Nyssa," Greek Orthodox Theological Review 18 (1973) 60-61; also Danitiou, “L'épectase,” 1882, "" Bog., Triads 1.3.35, Fo traces ofthe theme also in medieval Western cide Deseille, Dictionnaire de spirtwalté IV, p “Epectase,” 785-788, The Barker Ambigua of St. Maximus the Confessor ond hs Refutation of ‘Studia anselmiana 36 (Rome: Herder, 1959); ef. his important sh ‘and Orignism: APXH KAI TEAOE," Berichte sum XI. "Jahrbuch Brzantinischen Gesellschaft 7 (1958): 23.89 (= Plato Chrstianus, 294-304; and Alain Riou, Le monde et 'Eglse selon Maxime le Confeseur, Théologie historique 2 (Paris: Beaichesn, 197 stsinettet, thodox Origenis” himself, and nurtured in the ienism (vz, Heine's Perfection in the Virtuous Life) 'o alter the picture of Gregory's usefulness to Maximus. {Tu CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS 1st 2% Sail the most valuable analysis ofthe development of the Origenst notion of satiety is Marguerite Hat) “Recherches sur Porgénisme d’Origene: la satis (pe) dela con {empaion comme motif de la chute des mes,” Studio patristic 8, Teste und Unter- suchungen 93 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1966). 373-405, sm of satiety” in Maximus teleology, see She. ad Hans Urs von Balthasar, Kosmische Liturie as, ‘wood, The Eat ‘Das Weltbild Maximus des Bekenners, 2d ed, (Einsedeln:Johannes-Verlag, 1961 382, 413. language of eek Chis i. IV in The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medievol Phi- Tosophy, ed. A.H, Armstrong (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 502-503. » Opuscula theologica et polemica 1 (PG 91.9A); ee also ibid. (AC), where the Full satisaction (xq) of mystical enjoyment is precisely # &=* Sxopay Eneany abn xO shaven dp % Thid. 20 (PG 91.2288. "Im Canticum canticorum, hom. 6 (GNO VL, 17415). In doing so, he was following a line of theologians who adduced a principle of, perpetual mora spiritual progress: int. har. 4.11.2; Clement Alex, Strom. 1.2.10; Ch, Capita theologica et oeconomica 1.38 (PG 90.1096C 1097 1; ibid, 2.77 11614-B). George Berthold, Maximus Confesor: (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Pres, 1988), 46. ‘theme ofthe transformation Pursuit of God: eg. fn can, Kom. 10 (GNO Vi, 308,5-311,7). See also Danidiow, Platonisme et théoloie mystique, 2931. , "See dan Miguel Garrigcs, Maxime le Confeseur: La chart, ven divin de homme, Théolope historique 38 (Pais: Beauchesn, 1976), 83-84, citing Ep. 2 (PG168 PAUL M. BLOWERS ie, A13) ihtly notes as well the close false sense of see V; Moysis, Bk, I (GNO VIL, pt. 13,14 patristic background ofthis basing of the Perfection inthe Virtuous Life, Appendix 30) 14192. respect is Q. Thal. 42 (CCSG VII, 287,35-3). Taos and wires see Amb, 12 (PG 91-1341D), See also ren extensively analyzed by Sherwood, The Earlier Ambiqua, 198-208; TThunberg, Mierocasm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Max limus the Confessor (Lund: Gleerup, 1965), 220-243 For a clear statement of this principle, see Maximus's Oraionis dominicae expasitio (PG 90.901C-0), *Y, Mogsis, Bk. II (GNO VIL, pt © In inser. Psalm. 13 (GNO V. 3-8; trans. Ferguton-Malherbe, 117). 1724, "HE CONCEPT OF "PERPETUAL PROGRESS 19 Amb. 15 (PG 91.1220C), Sherwood (The Earlier Ambigua, 95, n. 49) notes a series lof passages where Maximus chooses to speak of God himself as trans-infinite:e.., Amb. 10 (PG 91.1113, 11684, Int aly Amb. 67 (®G MMO1Ay; Q. Thal. 9 (PG 90.408D). Confessor on the sur Maxime le Confesseur, Fribourg, 25 septembre 1960, ed. F ddosis 27 (Fribourg: Editions Universitaires, 100 (PG 90.9810-984A); Cap. theo 5 (PG 91.676C-677A; trans. Berthold, 192) Cap. theol. 2.86 (PG 90.1165A-B). See Amb. 7 (PG 91.1073D), As Plass notes, “love transforms nextended rest nto @ new kindof extension, for the interplay between extension and rest here again comes close 179.180) Cop, theo. 1.35 (PG 90.1096C:1097A; tan The Earlier Ambigua, 95, 1. 49. monde et VEpise, $3. There are, however, (1 polem. 20 (PG 91.2288), where Maximus uses xfs both of the ‘goal of progress toward the Logos. In Amb. 7 (PG 91 tobe terminated both by the170 PAUL M. LOWERS “Seventh” (Sabbath) asthe resting of the same in contemplation; and the “Eighth” as the mysterious promotion tothe deified sate, the mystical resurrection. On the tradition: history of such ns of cosmic Days in earlier patristic thought, see von Balthasar, Kosmische Liturgi, 617-624, "Der philosophische Eriag,” 25.26), who sees Maximus siming at 2 “higher synthesis" of Aristotelian and Platonic perspectives, where creature's very essence entails both the fulfilment of a natura cour the attainment of higher supernatural destiny. The “essence” expreses itself in the perpetual stving in before the calm or repose ofthe physical realm as distinct from the superior immobility Ie world. i. 65 (PG 90.786C); ef. Cap. theo. 1.54 (PG 90,1104A-B). ‘See Chrstou, “Maximos on the Infinity of Man,” 269-270 "Cap. theol. 2.88 (PG 90,1168D-1168A). See also von Balhasai’s brief commentary ‘om this text, relevant to Gregory of Nyssa, in Kasmische Liture, 563-564. "CE. Amb. 20 (PG 91.1237A-C), using the example of Paul's ascent in 2 Cor, 12 his ‘piniog beyond natural sense experience; ibid. 10 (II40A-B), on the ecstasy beyond nature; Q. Thal, $9 (PG 90.609A-B), alluding to the departure fans) from natural things as part of the process of deification. tisto von Balthasars credit Gin KosmisoheLiturie, 125) to have observed that Ma 1s salvages from Origenism the ideal of a genuine stasis as the goal of all ctesturely| ‘movement, Even if he repudiates the Origenis ontology, “so multe er gleichzitg den ositivenphilosophischen Sinn der origensischen ‘Standigke ‘und damit aus ‘dem Ideal ewigerseliger Sehnsucht bei Gregor [von Nyssa] Verabsolutierung des menschlichen Strbens entfemen, sive discussion in Maximus's famous Ambiguum 7 (PG ‘Le monde et 'Eglse selon Maxime le Confesseur, 49-1). Q. Thal. $9 (PG 90.6138-D), one discovers the se purposed in its be ten Rese einer Sous la conduite d'un pasteur-higouméne, Pun guide, d'un ‘gouvernal Review of Muhlenberg, Die Unendlicheit, 239 (sce above, n. 9), Such is Sherwood’s understanding of Maximus on this point se above, n, 71 See Q. Thal, 37 (CCSG VII, 249,35-48, ‘A locus clasicus in this regard is fn Cant, hom. 8 (ONO VI, 245 11-2471 cf. V. Moyss, Bk. 1(GNO 35.4; 566 also above, n.33, THE CONCEPT OF “PERPETUAL PROGRESS m © In Opuse, theo. et polem. 1 (PG 91.33C-36A), fending off a charge of Monenergism in an earlier writing, Maximus unequivocally states: “I therefore did not do away with of those who will suffer this (difcation) the operation ceasing tions, nor did 1 mn ofthe good supersubstantial power © See Cap. cart 1.100 (PG 90.9810 984A); also Thunbers, Mieracosm and Mediator, 438,481,482, which Maxienus indicates that personal will persists in a “voluntary emigration” (ayiene Yap) nto Godt se also ibid. (073C-D). Oa this 3, st within the perspective of Maxim's larger anthropology and Christology, see the thorough discus sion of Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator, 442-488; also Sherwood, The Earlier Ambigua, 124-154. From lomblichus to Eriugena, 243-250. % Tid, 250; f. also 27AKf Pure immobility is always ascibable only to God himself without a cause of its being is not moved. Now if that which then the Divineis umobile, since it ha If the cause of all beings” (Amb. 23, PG 91.1260); f.also ib "For that which i utterly absolutly without eause asthe cause of its being, 221A); Emmanuel School of Religion ‘One Walker Drive, Johnson City, Tennessee