Interpreting Saint Maximus
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I have been reading The Cosmic Mystery of Christ, a series of translations of St. Maximus the Confessor. I have always wanted to read the Confessor because his anthropology is hailed as the best that the patristic era has to offer. I am delighted with his doctrine that the passions can be sublimated by refocusing them from earthly objects to divine objects.
However, I am deeply disturbed by the doctrine that sexuality in any form is a result of the fall. I am looking for someone with a thorough understanding of patristic thought to help me out here: Is this consistent in the fathers, or are there dissenting voices with a different perspective? Give me specific sources to read. If you can point me to a secondary source that would show me that I’m actually misreading St. Maximus, that would be even better.
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5 Responses to “Interpreting Saint Maximus”
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July 5th, 2004 at 8:54 pm
I can’t site specific sources off the top of my head, but no,
the Fathers do not have a uniform answer on this issue from what
I’ve read. Fr. Seraphim Rose’s book on Genesis provides quite
a bit of patristic source material on this …
July 6th, 2004 at 7:46 am
I have just finished reading, Women and Men in the Early Church: The Full Views of St. John Chrysostom by Ford and while I am a bit fuzzy on the particulars, it seems St. John C, had a more favorable view of sex, marriage and women in general than some other of the Church Fathers.
July 6th, 2004 at 2:23 pm
I know John C has a lot to say about this kind of thing, although I’ve forgotten exactly what it is. Still, it seems worth taking a look at. He has a book called Marriage and Family Life, I think. Although, to tell you the truth, when I’ve read church fathers on this point, they do tend to take a pretty Platonic view of things.
July 6th, 2004 at 3:52 pm
Remember Basil what you’ve told me before, which is that the Fathers were 100 percent Orthodox
85 percent of the time. Also I think I heard a tape of Fr. Thomas Hopko in which he said that
much of what has been said about sexuality by the Fathers is not “Holy Tradition.”
July 6th, 2004 at 7:22 pm
Here are a couple of links that I could scrounge up:
Father Hopko on Sexuality: http://www.stlukeorthodox.com/html/evangelist/1998/hopkosexuality.cfm
A transcript from a homily by Father Josiah Trenham: http://www.chrisjdavis.org/homily.php (I am mirroring it out of my love for you brother, since I feel the layout of that site would wound you deeply.)
I think that is enough to get you going I think. Be well, we miss you everyday here at the Inn on Applegrove.