Revd Dr Doru Costache

Senior Lecturer in Patristic Studies

SAGOTC/SCD

Fully Human, Beyond Gender

Insights from St Maximus the Confessor
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
  Difficulty 41
  Difficulty 10

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Bronwen Neil, “‘The Blessed Passion of Holy Love’:
Maximus the Confessor’s Spiritual Psychology” Australian
EJournal of Theology, February 2004, issue 2:
  not a disconnected spirituality

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Samples of misogynistic rhetoric in St Maximus
  Difficulty 7: Eve as a harlot (pórnê)
  1 Corinthians 6:13,15-6
  St Andrew of Crete, The Great Canon, Tuesday of the first Lenten
Week, Ode 7.5
  Difficulty 10.28: Eve as a companion (synoikos) for Adam

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Notes on gender and the divine plan in St Maximus
  Difficulty 67
  All created things, and more so humans, currently move between their
original and final terms (ákrois, ákrôn), towards perfection
  Original term: Genesis 1:26
  Middle term: Genesis 1:27
  Final term: Galatians 3:28
  Inspiration from St Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Making of Man 16

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Notes on gender and the divine plan in St Maximus
  Difficulty 67
  The underlying plan of the narrative, a trilogy:
  Origin (archê) – Genesis 1:26 – divine intention
  Middle or current state (mesótês) – Genesis 1:27 – gender
constitution
  Finality (télos) – Galatians 3:28 – beyond gender, eschatological
perspective

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Notes on gender and the divine plan in St Maximus
  Difficulty 67
  Inaugurated by Christ, the existential mode ‘beyond gender’ is
actualised along the spiritual journey
  An influence from St Gregory of Nyssa’s 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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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  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: Holy
Flesh,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 Theological
Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor (Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup,
1965), 161-3.

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Notes on the genderless state
  Difficulty 67
  Galatians 3:28
  Christ is the essence of virtue (Difficulty 7)
  The genderless state = living virtuously = spiritual journey

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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Notes on the gender division
  Difficulty 67
  Human journey, from an extremity to an other, embraced by God 
gender 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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On Eve, Adam and Related Topics
  Notes on the gender division
  How can the ‘sexual synthesis’ be both central and
marginal in St Maximus?
  Hans Urs von Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy:The Universe According to
Maximus the Confessor, translated (from the second German
edition of 1961) by Brian E. Daley, SJ (San Francisco: Ignatius
Press, 2003), 199-200.

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Difficulty 41: From division to synthesis
  A theory/narrative of everything
  Five polarities
Domain 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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Difficulty 41: From division to synthesis
  A theory/narrative of everything
  Five syntheses
First 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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Difficulty 41: From division to synthesis
  Genesis 1:27 LXX
  Male and female (ársen and thêly) from the outset
  Positive appraisal of gender
  To Thalassius, prologue
  Pleasure not prohibited, just delayed
  Necessity of a state of serenity and stability (apátheian kai atrepsían),
conducive to the capacity of tasting pleasure divinely, and not merely
in a human fashion (hôs theòs all’ ouk ánthrôpos)
  Jean-Claude Larchet, “Ancestral guilt according to St Maximus the
Confessor: a bridge between eastern and western conceptions” Sobornost
20:1 (1998), 28, 38.
  Lars Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator, 405.

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Difficulty 41: From division to synthesis
  What is problematic then?
  selfish love (philautía) and addictions  misrepresentation of
nature  misuse  forgetfulness of God and the spiritual
journey  existential, ontological and ecosystemic
consequences

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Difficulty 41: From division to synthesis
  Redeeming gender and related
  Christ and the saints
  Contemplative reinterpretation of nature/gender
  Spiritual/right use
  Virtue and the natural principle (lógos tou eínai) of human
existence
  St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent 28

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Difficulty 41: From division to synthesis
  Prioritising the divine thought concerning our creation
(katá tón proêgoúmenon lógon tês peri tên génesin toû
anthrôpou)
  Overwhelming the narrow and divisive character of the
gender features (katá tó thêly kaì tó ársen idiótêta)
  Contemplation of the human being as a human being
(ánthrôpon mónon)

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Difficulty 10: Two ways towards the one goal
  Christ initiating the apostles into the “mysteries of
marriage and celibacy” (tá katà tòn gámon kaì tên agamían
mystêria)
  Moses, icon of marriage
  Elijah, icon of celibacy

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Difficulty 10: Two ways towards the one goal
  Both ways, i.e. marriage and celibacy, as valid paths leading
to Christ
  Prerequisites: living in accordance with reason (lógô) and
the divine laws (nómous)

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Concluding remarks
  Necessary reinterpretation of Maximian spiritual message
in the light of his exposure to the experience of holiness
  Necessary reinterpretation of Byzantine spirituality as
holistic anthropology
  Byzantium on the verge of a cultural revolution?
  Wisdom for us: taking the road less travelled

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