Note per l’attribuzione a Massimo il Confessore di parte degli Scholia al Corpus Dionysiacum

Augustinianum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-262
Author(s):  
Alberto Nigra ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius ◽  
Latin Version

This article intends to provide a further contribution to the attribution of the Greek Scholia on the Corpus Dionysiacum by examining the Latin version by Anastasius Bibliothecarius. In particular, some Latin manuscripts have recently been identified, which retain many of the critical signs used by Anastasius in order to mark the scholia dating back to Maximus the Confessor. The collation of these cruces not only allows us to identify the contribution of Maximus as a scholiast of the Corpus Dionysiacum, but also to ascertain further the work of John of Scythopolis and to point out a possible way to research the contribution of other commentators of Pseudo-Dionysius.

scholarly journals Christian Platonism and the Debate about Afterlife

Scrinium ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 242-260
Author(s):  
Dirk Krausmuller
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Christian Platonism ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

In the sixth and seventh centuries the belief in an active afterlife and its corollaries, the cult of the saints and the care of the dead, came under attack by a group of people who claimed that the souls could not function without their bodies. Some defenders of the traditional point of view sought to rebut this argument through recourse to the Platonic concept of the self-moved soul, which is not in need of the body. However, the fit between Platonism and traditional notions of the afterlife was not as complete as might first be thought. This article focuses on two Christian thinkers, John of Scythopolis and Maximus the Confessor, who were deeply influenced by Platonic ideas. In his Scholia on the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius John states clearly that after death the souls of ordinary human beings are inactive whereas the souls of the spiritual elite have entered the realm of eternal realities, which is entirely separate from this world. The case of Maximus is more complex. One of his letters is a spirited defence of the posthumous activity of the soul. However, in his spiritual writings he outlines a conceptual framework that shows a marked resemblance to the position of John of Scythopolis.


scholarly journals Eriugeny koncepcja powrotu: dzieło natury czy łaski?

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 31-58
Author(s):  
AGNIESZKA KIJEWSKA
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
First Cause ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

This paper tackles upon John Scottus Eriugena’s concept of the return while presenting it against the background of the Neoplatonic teaching about return (epistrophe). The return belongs to the conceptual triad: mone-proodos-epistrophe which used to serve Neoplatonic thinkers to describe the structure of reality and its dependence on the First Cause. In the system of Eriugena who bequeathed that very teaching from the Christian Neoplatonists (Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa), we talk about the return on metaphysical and mystical level in addition to the general return (reditus generalis) and the return of the elects (reditus specialis). Eriugena indicates the cyclical processes in the whole nature but at the same time he stresses that the return is caused by divine grace and the very condition of its possibility is the fact of taking fl esh (incarnatio) and taking human nature (inhumanatio) by Jesus Christ.

Carolingian renaissance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Marenbon
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius ◽  
The Middle Ages

The ‘Carolingian renaissance’ is the name given to the cultural revival in northern Europe during the late eighth and ninth centuries, instigated by Charlemagne and his court scholars. Carolingian intellectual life centred around the recovery of classical Latin texts and learning, though in a strictly Christian setting. The only celebrated philosopher of the time is Johannes Scottus Eriugena, but the daring Neoplatonic speculations of his masterpiece, the Periphyseon (On the Division of Nature) are not at all characteristic of the time and are based on Greek sources (Pseudo-Dionysius, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor) generally unknown to his contemporaries. The mainstream of Carolingian thought is important for the history of philosophy in three particular ways. First, it was at this time that logic first started to take the fundamental role it would have throughout the Middle Ages. Second, scholars began to consider how ideas they found in late antique Latin Neoplatonic texts could be interpreted in a way compatible with Christianity. Third (as would so often again be the case in the Middle Ages), controversies over Christian doctrine led thinkers to analyse some of the concepts they involved: for instance, the dispute in the mid-ninth century over predestination led to discussion about free will and punishment.

scholarly journals Some Notes on “playing Logos” in Ambiguum 71 of St Maximus the Confessor

Scrinium ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dmitry Kurdybaylo
Keyword(s):  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
Material World ◽  
The Third ◽  
Single Structure ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

Abstract In the Ambigua to John 71, Maximus the Confessor discusses a passage of Gregory Nazianzen describing divine Logos that “plays in all kinds of forms.” The article emphasises four main approaches of the Ambiguum 71 to ‘acquit’ the image of ‘playful’ God. Firstly, St Maximus involves the hyperbolic language of Pseudo-Dionysius to indicate the superiority of divine ‘game’ over any kind of prudency or playfulness. Secondly, God’s playing can be discovered in His providence towards the sensible creations. The third step introduces all the material world as a God’s plaything, which can nevertheless be an object of natural contemplation. The fourth approach is merely moral, and its pathetic language conceals tensions between St Maximus’ and St Gregory’s patterns of thinking. Finally, all four parts are linked in a single structure derived from the triad “practical philosophy – natural contemplation – mystical theology,” which was often used by St Maximus.

2. A map of earlier medieval philosophy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Marenbon
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
The West ◽  
Peter Abelard ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Arabic Philosophy ◽  
Jewish Philosophy ◽  
Maximus The Confessor ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

‘A map of earlier medieval philosophy’ outlines the development of medieval philosophy in its different traditions beginning with the Platonic schools of late antiquity. The five originators of the medieval traditions were Augustine, Boethius, ‘pseudo-Dionysius’, John Philoponus, and Sergius of Resh‘aynā. The most powerful 7th-century philosopher in Byzantium was Maximus the Confessor. In the West, key thinkers included Alcuin and Anselm. The beginnings of Arabic philosophy—kalām and falsafa—and their exponents, including al-Kindī and Avicenna, are then discussed before moving on to Peter Abelard and his 12th-century Latin philosophy, and Muslim and Jewish philosophy in the Islamic West with Averroes and Maimonides.

Mystical Theology of St. Simeon New Theologian

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk
Keyword(s):  
Present Contribution ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
Maximus The Confessor

The article deals with the problem of the divine light in the mystical works of St Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) in the context of the Eastern Christian ascetical tradition. The author focuses on the passages referring to the divine light in the works of Evagrios Pontikos, St Isaac the Syrian, St Maximus the Confessor, and in the Makarian corpus. As is shown in the present contribution, none of these authors created a fully-developed theory of the vision of the divine light. Being close to these writers in many ideas, St Symeon was generally independent of any of them in his treatment of the theme of vision of light, always basing himself primarily upon his own experience.

Mystical Theology and the Exegesis of Transfiguration in St. Maximus the Confessor

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-176
Author(s):  
Григорий Исаакович Беневич ◽  
Дмитрий Александрович Черноглазов
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Mystical Theology ◽  
The One ◽  
Maximus The Confessor

В статье рассматриваются толкования прп. Максимом Исповедником события Преображения Господня, которые сопоставляются с его учением о мистическом богословии. Доказывается, что Преображение созерцается прп. Максимом как своего рода «эйдос» или парадигма мистического богословия. Проводится сравнение некоторых ключевых понятий мистического богословия прп. Максима, с одной стороны, с «Ареопагитиками», а с другой - с учением свт. Григория Паламы. Сохраняя верность основным моментам учения «Ареопагитик», прп. Максим придаёт ему более отчетливое христологическое и опытно-антропологическое истолкование. Что касается учения свт. Григория Паламы, то, несмотря на некоторые отличия в терминологии (особенно понимания апофатики), экзегеза Преображения прп. Максима и его учение о мистическом богословии в целом могут быть согласованы с основными положениями Паламы. При этом необходимо помнить, что прп. Максим отвечал на иные вопросы, природа и характер восприятия Фаворского света не были в центре его внимания. The article discusses Maximus the Confessor’s interpretations of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which are compared to his doctrine of mystical theology. It proves that Transfiguration was contemplated by Maximus to be a kind of paradigm of mystical theology. A comparison of some key concepts of Maximus’s mystical theology is made, on the one hand, with that of the Corpus Areopagiticum, and on the other - with the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas. Remaining loyal to the main points of the teachings of the Areopagite, Maxim gave them a clearer Christological and experimental anthropological interpretation. As for the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas, despite some differences in terminology, (especially the understanding of apophaticism), Maximus’s exegesis of the Transfiguration and his doctrine of mystical theology as a whole can be reconciled with the main provisions of Palamas. At the same time, it is necessary to remember that Maximus answered other questions, the nature and character of the perception of the light of Thabor was not at the centre of his discussion.

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