A Saint for East and West: Maximus the Confessor's Contribution to Eastern and Western Christian Theology ed. by Daniel Haynes

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Saint for East and West: Maximus the Confessor's Contribution to Eastern and Western Christian Theology ed. by Daniel Haynes Benjamin E. Heidgerken A Saint for East and West: Maximus the Confessor's Contribution to Eastern and Western Christian Theology, edited by Daniel Haynes (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019), xxv + 281 pp. This book takes as a supposition that the contentious essence-energy problems between Gregory Palamas and Thomas Aquinas have reached an impasse in modern ecumenical discussion. In an effort to overcome that impasse, the book recommends turning to Maximus the Confessor as a common patristic source in which Christians of different stripes can recognize themselves and each other, behind and prior to the challenging theological differences between East and West that sharpened in the post-Photian and post-Schism period. The ecumenical significance of Maximus for Greek and Latin Christianity is rightly placed at the center of the collection. Still, the shadow of the Palamite controversy looms over many of its essays and appears to have been a part of the impetus for the volume. A number of contributions are implicitly or explicitly devoted to concepts that refer back to Palamas: participation, divine energy, metaphysics, and Maximus's theory of the logoi. Along the way, Maximus is also brought to bear on other issues of ecumenical import (the papacy, the Filioque, and the concept of the natural and of human nature) and broad issues in moral theology (like the concept of the will and the imitation of Christ). The essays make various and not wholly consonant use of Maximus, which is to be expected from a cast of authors of different ecclesial backgrounds. Given the different uses of Maximus in the volume, I find it useful to distinguish the essays into two groups: those whose interest in Maximus appears subordinate to later receptions of his thought or to the author's own modern attempt to forge a path forward; and those whose interest in Maximus I take to be primarily [End Page 1053] in understanding him as he would have us understand him. Adrian Guiu's essay (chapter 1) focuses on Eriugena's reception of Maximus's thought regarding the neo-Platonic exitus-reditus. Guiu commend-ably demonstrates a great deal of care in presenting each of these thinkers accurately, especially when it comes to their differing conceptions of the central mediating cosmic reality in bringing about the reditus. For Eriugena, it is the human intellect; for Maximus, however, is it the incarnate Logos (28–29). Guiu, in my estimation, gives Eriugena's difference from Maximus on this point a relatively easy pass. I would have liked to see more critical examination of the anthropological and Christological stakes in this difference. Does the human mind, in fact, overcome all the "divisions" in the world, including that between created and uncreated (5–6)? Maximus would surely say no; only a Christological solution can adequately address this aspect of the reditus. Yet Guiu does not challenge Eriugena with a question at the heart of Maximus's theological vision. Adam Cooper (chapter 5) reviews various well-explored areas of Maximus's Christology in good detail and accuracy. He is rightly concerned with the concept of the will and of natural desire that came to a climax in the dyothelite controversies. He brings to bear the action theory of Livio Melina (86–87), attempting to resolve the tension of Jesus's Gethsemane prayer by means of an analysis of filial relation (100). Cooper wants to avoid a solution to Jesus's prayer that places a struggle between Jesus's humanity and his divinity (89), yet I am increasingly convinced that the concepts of instinct and impulse that predominate academic discussion in this area (95–96; or "initial motions" on 94) are insufficient to either comprehend Maximus or resolve his claim that nothing natural resists God. Melina may help clarify, but resolution requires new parameters for discussion (which I note at the end). Luis Granados (chapter 7) considers Maximus's pneumatology in relation to his Christology. The matter is well-worth consideration, as Maximus's pneumatology (apart from the Filioque) has not attracted a great deal of attention in recent...