Various theological and economic chapters

The work “Various Theological and Economic Chapters” (15 chapters) was written in 630-634. It is a compilation from the works of St. Maximus the Confessor. The central theme of the work is the inextricable connection between the teaching about God in Himself (the Trinity, Divine properties) and His providential action in the world, the culmination of which is the Incarnation of the Son of God. Christ is the only way to the knowledge of God and to the deification of man. The Incarnation of the Son of God is the revelation of God's original plan for the world and man. It is in Christ that all divisions caused by the Fall are united and reconciled. 1. One super-beginning and super-essential Good - the Holy Trinitarian Unit, Father and Son and Holy Spirit; infinite unity of the Three Infinite 1. The meaning and image of existence [of the Holy Trinity], what and what It is, is completely inaccessible to those who exist. For She eludes all thinking of those who think, in no way emerges from Her hidden natural essence and extends infinitely beyond the boundaries of all knowledge of all knowledge. 2. That which in essence is true Good is neither the Beginning, nor the End, nor the Cause of being; It does not possess in existence any movement towards the Cause. And that which does not possess all this is not, in the true sense of the word, the Existing One, which has a Beginning, an End, and a Cause of Being, and has a certain movement towards the Cause 2. 3. If the Word precedes the creation of beings, 3 then there was not, is not and will not be a word that is higher than this Word. It is not devoid of mind or life, but has mind and life, since it has a Mind that gives birth to It, existing in an essential way, that is, the Father 4, and Life, that is, the Holy Spirit, [also] existing in an essential way and co-existing with Him. 4. One God, one Son, Parent, Father, and one Holy Spirit, Source; The unfused Unit and the undivided Trinity; Mind without beginning, unique and essentially [existent] Parent of the unique and beginningless Word; The source of the only and eternal Life, that is, the Holy Spirit. 5. There is one God because there is one Divinity. The unit is beginningless, super-essential, indivisible and indivisible. The same One and Trinity, and so on. 6. If every participation is comprehended by thought before those participating, then it is self-evident and obvious that the Cause of these beings, existing and conceived before them, is incomparable and in every way superior to all existing ones. [However, this relation cannot be understood] as [the relation of] essence to accidents, since in this case the Divinity will appear complex and possessing the being of 5 beings as an addition to its own Existence. [This relation should rather be understood] as the relation of the Superessential to the essence. After all, if the arts [themselves] seek the external forms of those [creations] that are [born] by them, and the general nature [itself seeks] the species [of beings] included in it, then all the more God, as the Superexistent 6 , brought into being the essences of beings from non-existents, and by virtue of the position of [His] Superessence, He is even more infinitely superior [to everything]. For God combined skill with art to discover the external forms [of creation]. He gave nature the energy that produces species, and established the very existence of beings as it is. 7. He, who in essence does not allow beings to participate in Himself, deigns to participate in Him in another way by those who are able to do this, but [Himself] does not at all emerge from [His] essential Hiddenness, since the way in which He deigns to participate [with Him] always remains closed 7 to everyone. Consequently, just as God deigns to participate [in Himself] in a way that He [alone] knows, so He also by His will brought into being the participating [creatures], in accordance with the logos comprehended only by Him, and through the overwhelming power of [His] Goodness. Therefore, what arose thanks to the will of the Creator can never be coeternal with Him who deigned to bring it into existence. 8. The Word of God, once born according to the flesh, because of [His] love for mankind, always desires to be born according to the spirit in those who desire [it]. And becoming a fetus, It forms Itself in them through virtues, revealing itself as much as the one who receives [It] can contain; It does not belittle the manifestation of its own Greatness with envy, but, seeing the strength of those who thirst [for Him], it measures it to them with the proper measure. Thus, the Word of God is always revealed in the ways [of the implementation of virtues] among [people] who participate in [It], and always remains invisible to everyone due to the abundance of [Its] mystery. Therefore, the divine Apostle, wisely contemplating the power of [this] sacrament, says: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8). And the mind comprehends and sees the eternal newness of this sacrament, which never grows old. 9 . Christ God is born, becoming man through the addition of flesh possessing a rational soul 8; He who brought into existence existing [things] from non-existence and Whom the Virgin gives birth to in a supernatural way, without breaking a single evidence of [His] virginity. For just as He Himself became a man, without changing his nature and strength, so He makes [His] Mother give birth and preserves Her as a Virgin, as a result of which one miracle is explained by another, and each of [these] miracles is hidden in another. Since God Himself and in His essence is eternally a Mystery, He emerges from His natural Hiddenness to the extent that It becomes more and more hidden through manifestation. And again. He makes the giving birth Mother a Virgin to the extent that [Her] bearing the Fruit in the womb becomes an indissoluble bond of virginity. 10. Natures are renewed, and God becomes man; and not only the Divine [nature], stable and motionless, moves towards [nature] movable and impermanent, so that it ceases to be carried away [by corruption] 9; and not only human [nature], seedlessly and in a supernatural way, grows perfect flesh for the Word, in order to stop being carried away [by corruption]; but also a star that appeared from the east during the day and led the Magi to the place of the Incarnation of the Word, in order to mysteriously show this Word, conquering the feeling, [speaking] in the law and the prophets and leading the peoples to the greatest light of knowledge. For the Word, which is in the law and the prophets, godly contemplated in the likeness of a star, clearly leads to the knowledge of the incarnate Word of those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28) by the power of grace. 11. Since I, a man, of my own free will, transgressed the divine commandment 10, and the devil, having seduced [me] with the hope of being a deity 11, carried away the strength of my nature to pleasures, which he boasted of as the organizer of death, rejoicing in the corruption of nature, so God becomes a man, not neglecting anything from [human] nature, with the exception of sin, for this sin does not belong nature. [And this is so that] the flesh, seduced by the offer [of the devil], would poison the insatiable dragon, [constantly] greedily devouring it, and, having become poison for him, would completely destroy him by the power of the Divinity [residing] in it. And for human nature [this flesh of the Lord would become] a Guardian, the power of the Divine, [residing] in it, calling for original grace. For just as the devil, pouring the poison of his evil into the tree of knowledge, destroyed the [human] nature that ate [from this tree], so he himself, desiring to taste the flesh of the Master, was destroyed by the power of the Divinity in it. 12. The great mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine always remains a mystery. And not only because, being revealed in proportion to the strength of those saved by Him, it has greater power than what was revealed, and is never accessible to sight, but also because this very manifestation [of the mystery] still remains completely hidden and unknowable by any reason. And let what has been said not seem incredible to anyone. After all, God, being super-essential and surpassing all super-essence, desired to come to essence and in a super-essential way clothed himself in being 12. Therefore, He, as a Lover of Mankind, for the sake of people, truly became a man from human essence and remains, regarding the method of His Incarnation, completely unmanifested; for He became man above man 13 . 13. Let us consider with faith the mystery of the Divine Incarnation and only in [heartfelt] simplicity let us glorify Him who deigned to become human for our sake. For who, relying on the power of logical proof, can say how the conception of God the Word occurs? How does flesh come into being without [male] seed? How could there be a birth without corruption? 14 How did the Mother [of God] remain a Virgin even after being delivered from her burden? How did the Superperfect succeed as he matured? How was the Pure One baptized? How did [Himself] the Hungering One satisfy [others]? How did the Weary One give [others] strength? How did the Sufferer heal? How did the Dead give life? And finally, most importantly: how does God become a man? And the most mysterious [of all]: how did the Word, by hypostasis, essentially abide in the flesh, being all wholly in essence and hypostatically in the Father? 15 How is it that the same One is both wholly God by nature, and wholly became man by nature, without at all denying either of these natures—neither the Divine nature by which He is God, nor our nature by which He became man? These sacraments are contained in faith alone, being the realization of things (Heb. 11:1) 16 that surpass mind and understanding. 14. Adam, by his disobedience, taught that the existence of [human] nature begins with pleasure; The Lord expelled this [property] of nature and did not allow conception from [male] seed. The woman 17, having broken the commandment, showed that the birth of [human] nature begins with torment 18; The Lord, having been born [of the Virgin], shook off this [property of] nature and did not agree that the One who gave birth [to Him] should be subject to corruption. [And this in order] to expel from nature both voluntary pleasure and the torment resulting from this pleasure, of which He was not the creator, but became the Destroyer. And also in order to teach about the beginning of another life, perhaps having its origin in torment and labor, but ending in divine pleasure and boundless joy. Therefore, He, who created man, becomes man and is born as a man in order to save man, healing passions with [His] sufferings, and in order. Himself being a Passion, turn into the [Destroyer] of our passions. And therefore, He supernaturally, through His hardships in the flesh, lovingly renews our skills in the spirit 19 . 15. Whoever, by attraction to God, has overcome the predisposition of the soul to the body, has become unlimited 20, although he is in the body. For God, being incomparably above everything, attracts [to Himself] the desire of the one who thirsts [for Him], not allowing this desire to be nailed to anything that is after God. So, let us desire God with all the strength of our nature, let us make our will unenslaved by everything corporeal, let us stand in our spiritual disposition above the existing, sensible and intelligible, and absolutely not allow natural limitations to cause damage to what is unlimited by nature, when by force of will [we strive] for cohabitation with God. Rev. Maxim uses the term συμφία (lit. “fusion”) to denote the unity of the Hypostases of the Holy Trinity [So in the edition of Wm. συμφυΐα. - Ed. AB ], which was used by St. before him. Gregory the Theologian. See: Gregoire de Nazianze. Discourse 32–37, p. 94. This chapter provides an example of that apophatic theology to which Rev. Maxim refers more than once in his creations. Characteristic is the mention of “movement,” which, according to the monk, is an essential property of created nature. God, as one who sets everything in motion, but is not himself set in motion, is “immovable” (ἀκίνητος). One of the first to introduce this definition, first put forward by Aristotle, into the Christian teaching about God was the apologist Athenagoras, who emphasized with this word, along with others (ἀγένητος, etc.), the cardinal difference between the Creator and the creature. See: Mironositsky P. Athenagoras, Christian apologist of the 2nd century. Kazan, 1894, p. 187–218; Barnard L. W. Athenagoras. A Study in Second Century Christian Apologetic. P., 1972, p. 81–91. The verb προκαθηγεῖται can also be translated as “to lead”, “to be leading”; in this case, the Word of God (Logos) is the guiding principle of all created being and the principle of its formation (τῆς τῶν ὄντων γενέσεως). Rev. Maxim, following the already indicated patristic tradition, dating back to the early Christian apologists, designates God the Father as “Mind”. Therefore, the Son (Logos) is not ἄνους, but ἔννους. So in this case it is more appropriate to translate the concept of “hypostasis”. In the word ὑπερούσιος the meanings of “super-essential, located above all essence” and “super-existent (pre-existent), exceeding all being” are inextricably linked. In the vocabulary of the Holy Fathers there is no impassable gap between “essence” and “existence”; although they are quite often distinguished, a constant connection remains between them, for this is dictated by the very logic of the Greek language, since the concept of “essence” (οὐσία) is derived from the verb “to be” (εἶναι). In God, transcendental to all being, “essence” and “existence” (or rather, “superessence” and “superexistence”) are completely identical. See: Balthasar N.U. Kosmische Liturgie (2 Aufl.), S. 182. Lit. “that which cannot be open (or - revealed: ἀνέκφαντος). It is characteristic that Dionysius the Areopagite conjugates this word with the designation of God as the “Present Essence” (τὴν ὑπερούσιον οὐσίαν). See: Lampe G.W. N. Op. cit., p. 132. Such an emphasis on the fullness of the Lord’s humanity became common in patristic literature after the heresy of Apollinaris of Laodicea, who denied the presence in Christ of a human mind or rational soul, the place of which, as Apollinaris believed, was taken by God the Word Himself. The phrase ἵνα στήσῃ τοῦ φέρεσθαι is quite difficult to adequately translate. Another possible translation: “calmed down from its rotation (or movement).” But at St. Athanase of Alexandria in his essay “On the Incarnation of the Word” contains one phrase: “So, people should not have been allowed to be carried away by corruption (φέρεσθαι τῇ φθορᾷ), since this is not appropriate and unworthy of the Goodness of God” (Athanase d’Alexandrie. Sur l’Incarnation du Verbe. P., 1973, p. 284 (Sources chrétiennes, no. 199)). A similar use of the verb φέρω in St. Athanasius, in the presence of a close semantic context with the thoughts expressed in this place by Rev. Maxim, and determined the chosen translation option. Using the first person singular, Rev. Maxim seems to emphasize that “in Adam I sinned.” However, the doctrine of original sin is completely absent here, for, according to the Greek Fathers of the Church, what people inherited as a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve was not sin, but death and corruption. Therefore, Rev. Maxim, in accordance with this general Orthodox tradition, only emphasizes that sin is a “personal act.” See: Meyendorff J. Initiation à la théologie byzantine. L'histoire et la doctrine. P., 1975, p. 192–198. Cp. Gen.3:5: “You will be like gods.” Or: as if “realized (realized) in a super-essential (present) way” (ὑπερουσίως οὐσιώθη). This expression emphasizes the incomprehensibility and paradoxical nature (from the point of view of created existence) of the birth of God the Word through humanity. Rev. In this chapter, Maxim seems to warn against getting carried away with dialectical subtleties in the field of dogmatics. For the Mystery of the Incarnation still remains ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον: the image (or method) of the Incarnation of the Logos will never be accessible in its entirety to the perception of the human mind. Only a very approximate and vague comprehension of this great Mystery is possible for us. This once again confirms the fact that, despite the most subtle logical and theological development of the Christological problem, Rev. Maxim always remained faithful to the spiritual tradition of Orthodox monasticism, which, in the person of its outstanding representatives (for example, St. Neil of Sinai and others) pushed into the background all sorts of “dialectical excesses.” See: Podskalsky G. Theologie und Philosophic in Byzanz. Der Streit um die theologische Methodik in der spatbyzäntinische Geistergeschichte (14/15 Jh.), seine systematischen Grundlagen und seine historische Entwicklung. München, 1977, S. 102. Characteristic for the teacher. Maxim distinguishes γένεσις (“emergence, bringing into being”) and γέννησις (“birth”). The first concept usually denotes the origin of man from the hands of God, and the second - the reproduction of people, which arose after the Fall and is inextricably linked with corruption. The difference between these concepts Rev. Maxim also applied it in relation to the birth of the Lord, but in a specific place it is only barely outlined. For more information, see: Völker W. Maximus Confessor als Meister des geistlichen Lebens, S. 88; Dalmais I.H. L’novation des natures d’apres S. Maxime le Confesseur a propos de Ambiguum 42 // Studia Patristica, 1984, vol. XV, pt. 1, p. 288. A phrase that is quite difficult to translate into Russian. The first part of it: οὐσιωδῶς ἐν σαρκὶ καθ’ ὑπόστασιν ὁ Λόγος means that the Hypostasis of God the Word actually became incarnate, that is, it took on the fullness of human nature. It should be noted that the adverb οὐσιωδῶς in the Christological context denoted not only the reality of the Incarnation, but also directly correlated with hypostatic unity, the opposite of the Nestorian “relative” (σχετικῶς) unity. (See: Lampe G.W. H. Op. cit., p. 987.) So, for example, in the “Epistle on the Two Natures [of Christ]” by the monk Eustathius it is said that Christ is impassive in divinity and “passionate in the flesh essentially united with Him” (παθητὸς τῇ οὐσιωδῶς ἡνωμένῃ αὐτῷ σαρκί (Diversorum postchalcedonensium auctorum collectanea. I. Turnhout, 1989 (Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca, vol. 19), p. 426). The second part of the phrase: ὁ κατ’ οὐσίαν ὑποστατικῶς ὅλος ὑπάρχων ἐν τῷ Πατρί indicates the unity in essence of the Son with the Father and, at the same time, to the hypostatic mode of His existence in the Holy Trinity. Based on the context, we took the liberty of changing the synodal translation of this passage of Holy Scripture. In a word ἡ γυνή rev. Maxim, naturally, denotes the ancestor Eve. At this place Rev. Maxim does not so much distinguish as conjugate the concepts γένεσις and γέννησις; if “bringing into being (emergence)” occurs ἐξ ἡδονῆς, then “birth” – ἐξ ὀδύνης. The combination of words “pleasure - torment” is also characteristic of the Rev. Maxim, as already indicated. The phrase ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ κατὰ σάρκα στερήσεσι indicates the “kenosis” of God the Word, who by this “exhaustion” returns to us what we possessed before the Fall, that is, κατὰ πνεῦμα ἕξεις – “stable states in spirit” or “spiritual skills.” The word ἀπερίγραφος in patristic writing was usually applied to God and to the realm of the Divine. Using it in relation to a person, Rev. Maxim points to the state of deification, when a person, through the grace of God, overcomes the sinful gravity of the flesh, the essential property of which is “limitedness” (or “description” - περιγραφή). You might be interested in: