The Christological Cosmology of St. Maximos the Confessor

What do these have in common?:

What do these have in common? Can you see God in them?

What about these?:

What about these? Top: small pox virus; a deadly gamma ray starburst Bottom: parasitic wasp; the 2011 megaquake in Japan

God’s Creative Radar:

God’s Creative Radar God is at the centre of the Cosmos as the Logos (Word ) … (one Logos, many logoi) Without division, He is also on all the creative points of His sweeping radius of the Cosmos, willing by His logoi all things to exist according to their proper places, functions and ends. The “logos” of each thing or person exists in God “before” it is created. It can be compared to the DNA coding that exists before a baby is conceived in the womb. All the logoi express Holy Wisdom in the divine conception of the Cosmos from nothing. NOTE: God’s “radar” creates things rather than detects them. St. Maximos the Confessor

What are the logoi?:

What are the logoi? Heraclitus in the 6 th Century B.C. was perhaps the first to refer to the Logos in pre-Christian Greek philosophy. Wisely he said:- “ though all things come to be in accordance with this LOGOS, humans are like the inexperienced when they experience such words and deeds as I set out . ” However sionce the Logos became flesh in Christ these logoi are now to be known in Him. Conway’s “Game of Life” is a simulation on a computer showing how complexity (and hence diversity) can arise from basic units and a few very simple rules of birth and death controlling how those units behave. The rules are analogous to the logoi except that in Orthodox Christian theology this is a much richer concept involving divine creativity and freedom. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcuBvj0pw-E

Humans in the Cosmos:

Humans in the Cosmos In his work “ Ambiguum ” (41) and “ Mystagogia ”, St. Maximos writes that humans, being made in the image and likeness of God, contain the richest of created attributes and so form a  ( syndesmos ) or natural bond between all levels of being. This is the idea of humanity as the microcosm or “little Universe.” Humans failed in their vocation in Eden so the Logos took flesh in order to restore in humanity that potential. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-s_FOD6dug

Ordered and Disordered Willing:

Ordered and Disordered Willing Definitions Natural Willing … the creature willingly moves in accordance with the logos of its nature towards the fulfilment (telos) of its being in God. Gnomic willing … after the Fall the creature is partially ignorant or sinfully inclined and deliberates to the point of making a choice, which may or may not be in accordance with the logos of its nature. St. Maximos held that Christ had no gnomic will. (Ad Thalassium 42)

Creation corrupted:

Creation corrupted 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God . (Romans 8:20-21) In Maximian terms, the Fall of humankind has also corrupted Creation away from its natural logoi. The corruption of human gnomic willing is the culprit here, so the liberation of Man leads to the liberation of the Cosmos.

Christ – logoi in Logos:

Christ – logoi in Logos By his refinement of the ancient concept of the logoi of all things in creation, now gathered up and restored in Christ the Logos, St. Maximos expressed the same truth taught by St. Irenaeus of Lyons that in the Incarnation, the Word recapitulated all things … “summing up His own handiwork in Himself” (quoting Justin Martyr in “Against the Heresies” 4.6.1 )

Death destroyed:

Death destroyed St. Maximus on how the curse of sin and death was undone by Christ … “At the resurrection of Christ, human nature was transformed into incorruption because his free choice was immutable.” (Ad Thalassium 42) 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him . (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Salvation as Deification:

Salvation as Deification When disordered passions have been conquered then the divine life wholly transforms the person according to his or her logos. The telos (end) is deification, a partaking of divinity by grace. This is what we aspire to in the Transfiguration of our Lord. Speaking of a deified person, St. Maximos says:- “Such a one has no experience of what is present to it and has become without beginning and end; he no longer bears within himself temporal life and its motions, which has beginning and end and is disturbed by many passions, but he possesses the sole divine and eternal life of the indwelling Logos, a life unbounded by death.” ( Ambiguum 10, C20d)

Honour and Dignity in the Image:

Honour and Dignity in the Image “‘Neither slave nor free’, that is, that is no division of the same nature by opposition of the will, which makes dishonoured what is by nature of equal honour and has, as an auxiliary, the attitude of those who exercise a tyrannical sway over the dignity of the image .” (St. Maximos ) IMPLICATIONS (1)

Humanity as the Microcosm:

Humanity as the Microcosm “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations .” (Revelation 22:1-2) IMPLICATIONS (2)