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8/8/2019 Fully Human

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Fully Human, Beyond Gender

Insights from St Maximus the Confessor

Revd Dr Doru Costache

Senior Lecturer in Patristic Studies

SAGOTC/SCD


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Introduction

Patristic anthropology: pessimistic? St Maximus the Confessor (d. 662) viewed as a typical

Byzantine monk, nurtured by Neoplatonism

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Introduction

The progress of the paper: Various fragments from the Book of Difficulties /Ambigua, dealing

with Genesis 1-3 and Galatians 3:28

Difficulty41 Difficulty10

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics

Bronwen Neil, The Blessed Passion of Holy Love:Maximus the Confessors Spiritual PsychologyAustralian

EJournal of Theology, February 2004, issue 2:

not a disconnected spirituality

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Samples of misogynistic rhetoric in St Maximus Difficulty7: Eve as a harlot (prn)

1 Corinthians 6:13,15-6 St Andrew of Crete, The Great Canon, Tuesday of the first Lenten

Week, Ode 7.5

Difficulty10.28: Eve as a companion (synoikos) for Adam

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Notes on gender and the divine plan in St Maximus Difficulty67

All created things, and more so humans, currently move between theiroriginal and final terms (krois, krn), towards perfection

Original term: Genesis 1:26 Middle term: Genesis 1:27 Final term: Galatians 3:28 Inspiration from St Gregory of Nyssas On the Making of Man 16

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The underlying plan of the narrative, a trilogy: Origin (arch) Genesis 1:26 divine intention Middle or current state (mests) Genesis 1:27 gender

constitution Finality (tlos) Galatians 3:28 beyond gender, eschatological

perspective


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Inaugurated by Christ, the existential mode beyond gender isactualised along the spiritual journey

An influence from St Gregory of Nyssas On the Making of Man 16 A two-stage creation, or a double-layered human nature? A double-layered structure: The image of God in us Our gender-marked condition


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Recent adherents to this misinterpretation: Andrew Louth,Maximus the Confessor(London & New York:

Routledge, 1996), 73.

Adam G. Cooper, The Body in St Maximus the Confessor: HolyFlesh, Wholly Deified, The Oxford Early Christian Studies

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 209-10. Against the idea of a double creation in St Maximus:

Lars Thunberg,Microcosm and Mediator: The TheologicalAnthropology of Maximus the Confessor(Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup,

1965), 161-3.


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Notes on the genderless state Difficulty67

Galatians 3:28 Christ is the essence of virtue (Difficulty7) The genderless state = living virtuously = spiritual journey


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Notes on the gender division Difficulty67

Human journey, from an extremity to an other, embraced by Godgender embraced by God

A positive appraisal of human nature Gender not obliterated by the spiritual experience Paul M. Blowers, Bodily Inequality, Material Chaos, and the Ethics of

Equalization in Maximus the Confessor Studia Patristica vol. 42

(Leuven-Paris-Dudley: Peeters, 2006), 51-6.


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Notes on the gender division

How can the sexual synthesis be both central andmarginal in St Maximus?

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According toMaximus the Confessor, translated (from the second German

edition of 1961) by Brian E. Daley, SJ (San Francisco: IgnatiusPress, 2003), 199-200.


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Difficulty41: From division to synthesis

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A theory/narrative of everything

Five polaritiesDomain First element Second element

1 Reality Uncreated Created

2 Creation Invisible Visible

3 Visible Sky Earth

4 Earth Paradise Civilised world

5 Civilised world Male Female


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A theory/narrative of everything

Five synthesesFirst element Second element Accomplishment

1 Male Female Paradisiacal

humanity

2 Civilised world Paradise Transfigured earth

3 Earth Sky Unity of the visible

4 Visible Invisible Unity of creation

5 Creation Uncreated Union, deification


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Genesis 1:27 LXX Male and female (rsen and thly) from the outset Positive appraisal of gender

To Thalassius, prologue Pleasure not prohibited, just delayed Necessity of a state of serenity and stability (aptheian kai atrepsan),

conducive to the capacity of tasting pleasure divinely, and not merely

in a human fashion (hs thes all ouk nthrpos)

Jean-Claude Larchet, Ancestral guilt according to St Maximus theConfessor: a bridge between eastern and western conceptions Sobornost

20:1 (1998), 28, 38.

Lars Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator, 405.


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What is problematic then? selfish love (philauta) and addictions misrepresentation of

nature misuse forgetfulness of God and the spiritual

journey existential, ontological and ecosystemic

consequences


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Redeeming gender and related Christ and the saints Contemplative reinterpretation of nature/gender Spiritual/right use Virtue and the natural principle (lgos tou enai) of human

existence

St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent28


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Prioritising the divine thought concerning our creation(kat tn progomenon lgon ts peri tn gnesin to

anthrpou)

Overwhelming the narrow and divisive character of thegender features (kat t thly ka t rsen iditta)

Contemplation of the human being as a human being(nthrponmnon)


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Difficulty10: Two ways towards the one goal

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Christ initiating the apostles into the mysteries ofmarriage and celibacy (t kat tn gmon ka tn agaman

mystria)

Moses, icon of marriage Elijah, icon of celibacy


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Difficulty10: Two ways towards the one goal

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Both ways, i.e. marriage and celibacy, as valid paths leadingto Christ

Prerequisites: living in accordance with reason (lg) andthe divine laws (nmous)


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Concluding remarks

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Necessary reinterpretation of Maximian spiritual messagein the light of his exposure to the experience of holiness

Necessary reinterpretation of Byzantine spirituality asholistic anthropology

Byzantium on the verge of a cultural revolution? Wisdom for us: taking the road less travelled

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