Although I am more Orthodox leaning I applaud you for being a Protestant and doing your due diligence into researching the foundations of our faith and where many of our tenants have come from! At my former Protestant church I was disillusioned by how the pastor couldn't answer my questions regarding the early church so you are doing your fellow Protestants an incredible service!
I agree that Protestants need to learn more about the history of the church, as it’s very important for edification, even if it doesn’t directly affect salvation. I am Protestant myself and have been reading a lot on church fathers and Christian history, and I can’t help but think, “no one In my Protestant circles have ever mentioned this history nor know about it” I wouldn’t be surprised if they only know about Martin Luther bc of school, that’s certainly the only reason *I* knew of him.
Thanks Caleb. A thing or two to point out though. The passion mentioned by Maximus is not referring to the English word passion as we comprehend it today. For Maximus, passion is a movement of the soul contrary to nature (Car 2:16), either in irrational love or in senseless hate. Thus, it's not that dissimilar from Augustine's. In a postlapsarian state, passion "attached" to irrational human thought (compound logismos). If we give consent to this thought, then we sin. Thus, for Maximus, it is not sin that introduced passions; rather, our will/love towards passions brings about sin.
Right. I was thinking the same. For Maximus, he makes clear distinction between the sin I cause and the sin I commit; what I commit was the deliberate wicked use of my will to focus and attain on unnatural pleasure to the spiritual mind, thereby willingly transgressing, which lead to the sin caused by that will, namely the liability to passions because of the distortion and darkening of the spiritual mind that fell into confusion and abuse of what is good. Still, nonetheless, I could not wrap up my mind around his idea that sexual pleasure and human conception were somehow the products of the transgression. What are your thoughts on this?
If you look at the Greek word for passion it’s similar to where we get our word for pathology (study of disease) πάθος páthos. So you are exactly write about Saint Maximus the confessor’s usage of passion.
This was a really good introduction into Maximus and although you aligned yourself with Augustine (western) theology in terms of passions, I still felt more connected with what Maximus had to say. The disconnect I feel from attending protestant churches is related to this to some extent, but it's primarily to do with western churches focussing on atonement and how rudimentary pagan that can seem, especially without the centrality of the incarnation. Thank you for your insight.
I just love St. Maximus. I approached his theology when I was still an atheist, and something in his way to conceptualize Christianity struck a chord with me. Now I just can't see how you can understand anything in reality without Christ.
As an architect starting to going down the rabbit hole of architectural theory and philosophy, the EO seem to be right in their conception of architecture, in this case specifically Maximus, but great video nonetheless.
The teachings of the Church Fathers basically have nothing to do with the Protestant heresy. Protestants have no idea about what salvation is or how it’s acquired. Seek out the church established by Christ and the apostles. The rest are incomplete and just false.
Although there have been a very few Orthodox Christians in recent times who, apparently motivated by their opposition to hasty reunion efforts between Orthodox and Papal ecumenists, tried to write St. Augustine out of the canon of recognized Church fathers, theirs is a very atypical opinion. St. Augustine of Hippo is very much one of the Church fathers, all of whom are recognized as such by the longstanding consensus both east and west, and although Augustine, who tends to be as underweighted in the east as he is overweighted in the west, expressed some theological opinions that the east did not accept, that only illustrates why no individual church father is an infallible guide, but rather we must look to the phronema (the "mind" of the Church), expressed in the Latin west as the "consensus patrum," consensus of the fathers. One's predilection for the writings of one father more than another is no reason to prefer Protestantism (non sequitur, a fallacy of logic), since none of the fathers was even remotely Protestant in outlook. During the Dark Ages, knowledge of the Greek tongue entirely died out in the west for centuries, with the consequence that those eastern fathers who had not yet been translated into Latin were neglected while Augustine, the most prolific Christian writer until Karl Barth the Lutheran in the 20th century, became an overwhelming influence. (However, _The Ladder of Divine Ascent_ by the early 7th century monk of St. Katherine's Monastery by Mt. Sinai, St. John Climacus, "the Climber," did get translated and was the second most read book in the Middle Ages, behind only the Bible, but it is more concerned with the cultivation of personal piety than with theological questions.)
I think the idea of beautiful architecture isn’t incongruent with transformation of the common. I think it calls the common to a higher standard of beauty, where a plain Jane Baptist church no more beautiful than the surrounding buildings is not calling the surroundings to more glory but rather letting the common be the highest beauty there is. I am not orthodox, but looking that way more towards that increasingly.
Slowly my friend you're going to eat those convicted protestant words. I think you're gonna start to understand one's how tradition works and you look at the ideas of how literal the sacraments and the holy mysteries are actually taken by the early church father's you have read.
In the Orthodox world (notably the balkan countries) every village and city neighborhood has a town square with a church at its center. Mount Athos is distinctly and exclusively for monks.
Hey your enthusiasm is empowering! Btw, - “Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” - Seraphim of Sarov - this is what Father on Mount Athos are doing. One hermit (monk Rafail Noica) said once: I am not isolating myself from your but for you. Being with God, enlarging one's heart so much (like Saint Siluoan the Athonite) to accommodate the entire humanity within is what monks do, in deep retreat. Of course, then the local Churches in cities are an extension of that and having a complementary role. In Romania we have both, isolated monasteries and hundreds of orthodox Churches in cities as well
I have just started my study of Maximus, and I am thrilled with his view of God’s purpose in the incarnation. I think you did a brilliant job of presenting this. I’m subscribing!
I'm seeing it 2 years after posting but it was cool, man. Gonna check this book out. You're the second time Maximus The Confessor has caught my attention this week.
A strange thing has happened now in that the vast majority of “Protestants” today are very happy with icons and pictures of Jesus, whereas the historic reformed Protestants are largely anti-depictions of any Persons of the Godhead in view of the second commandment.
Oh boy OK so I think you're missing the point of architecture then here. We don't hate the physical world be loved of physical world otherwise we wouldn't have icons. Our main goal in life is to sanctify and make it wholly I am making a holy which is taking on the role of Christ through the incarnation and baptism Chrismation. So when you go into any orthodox church and they're all different by the way. They all are reflecting different ways heaven looks they're mirrors to heaven and showing that the kingdom of God is here on Earth assets and heaven and the link between the church triumphant and church militant
Does anyone know what excerpts Jonathan Pageau used to support his idea of the logos (some sort of realm created in the human mind made of consciousness or attention)? Thanks!
Thanks for the video. Just read the intro and wanted a simple explanation of what’s going on before I dive into the text. The video was VERY helpful. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more popular patriotic series videos. 💚✌🏽
Philippians 2:6-7 "in very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." He was fully human and equal to God but did not use it to benefit himself. His will is his own but by his triune nature, since before time, has always been in unity with the father.
Sounds like the protestant idea of "reordering" the passions and senses is a lukewarm approach. It's the same mindset that says "Jesus didn't really want us to give our possessions to the poor, but just not to be too attached to possesions". Much easier to allow self to enjoy sex and money rather than eschewing all in favor of putting the uncreated realm first.
I love what you're doing brother but so much of your research and your brilliant mind is doing this remove from the orthodox church. What I mean is like some of your assumptions are wrong especially on how church functions and it building. You are reading this my man please find your local orthodox priest sit down with and have coffee.
Thanks for interacting with my videos! I am genuinely open minded and open hearted as I continue to study and pray about Eastern theology. I hope to meet with priests and theologians soon. Thanks for giving me space as I continue to clunkily work through these ideas!
@@CalebSmith3 It is struggle it's definitely a struggle. But I was falling into it I had a fight to zeal you get from it. My friend said it was comparable to a cage calvanist.😂🤣😅 If you explore it more brother you're gonna see the a lot of things the orthodox church died in preservation of some of of some of our most ancient practices as being part of the body of Christ. I love your journey!! I love how you love the fathers. One of the days you should try to get reading both the cappudocian fathers and the desert fathers and mothers
Thanks for the video. I hope you will read this message. In early Christianity and Orthodox faith today Passions are bad, there is no correct order of the passions. Quote: "Passions are the uncontrolled desires that come from our bodily needs. They subordinate our soul to our egoistic or self will. They come about because we forget about God and only think of our own needs. The seven passions are: gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness and pride." Passions must be eliminated if we want to stop sinning. Gluttony is the lowest that leads to all others, we fight it with fasting. Overeating is the root of much sin. Pride is the hardest to eliminate, however if the pride falls, all of the other passions will fall at this time, and we will be truly free. We as Christians should strive to be in the likeness of Christ, which means we must fight to eliminate the passions and build the virtues, with Love being greatest of all. If you read the list of passions, they work against Love, diminishing it within us. So I hope that this will shed some light on the St. Maximus writings on the Passions.
'He was the only man without sin' can be understood to mean "he was the only man to not entertain the demonic thoughts projected into human consciousness by the devil".
I loved this. I have been wanting to read “The Cosmic Mystery” and was searching for an introduction. This was perfect. And I love your enthusiasm. Thank you so much!!
Depends how you define a failure. Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Matthew 26:39 NET That was at least stumbling so there you go..
It is impressive how I can agree so much on the first point - after all, why would we want to be redeemed from our sins if God were not to be our Beloved? -, and, like you, disagree so much on the second - why would God create a world and even Himself enter it if it were not to be redeemed and made even better in the end? Augustine's quote was on point. Looking forward to the next reviews. May God keep blessing your work and passions (and your cameraman's work too haha).
Maybe you get this from your the routings when they talk about passions. Passions is used from how I was tothologically those are your natural desires that are broken. But when saying overcoming them it's most likely setting them straight a sanctifying them to the point that they are no longer passions but they are what they are always meant to be in your human nature.
I enjoyed the video and I’m pleased that you’re delving into the PPS. You certainly didn’t start off easy by choosing Maximus! Respectfully, I think Maximus’ argument surrounding passions is way more nuanced than presented. I was surprised you didn’t mention the fact that he is mainly attributing passions to what’s called the gnomic will, or the will which chooses the assumed good. This is the will he states isn’t natural to humanity. If it were then Christ would be considering his options during his temptations, which would mean he was debating whether or not to choose evil. Maximus also argues that there is a prelapsarian will which Adam had as a kind of natural stability or in more crude terms a blank slate. Adam had choice but he didn’t have a gnomic will. He was created to choose good, not to deliberate within himself. However, because of his lacking of wisdom Satan was able to decieve Adam into sinning by playing upon that immaturity. Adam’s choice to even entertain the idea of eating the fruit was the fall of free choice, not eating the apple itself. By choosing what he believed was an assumed good this led to a gnomic will which further chained humanity after the fall. By contrast Christ had a natural human will (prelapsarian) in one hypostasis (divine and human). Christ’s human will was not a gnomic will and was united to the divine in one hypostasis, which was always the plan of salvation through the incarnation (man and God to be united). Adam didn’t have this union with God, but through Christ man can now have union with God through theosis. If our gnomic will is natural to man then Christ would need to have it to be fully man. But if he had a gnomic will then he had a will which chooses the assumed good leaving for the possibility of sin. Christ could never sin because by being God and man he chose good even before he grew in age/wisdom as Isaiah 7:15 states: “Before the Child knew or advanced in evil, He chose the good.” Christ’s will was prelapsarian not gnomic. Additionally, you can tell by the similar way both Adam and Christ were tempted. Both were tempted by truths not by using their passions with lies. Adam’s will was not deified nor was it unified with God the Word, so he was able to be deceived. I know that was a lot but here’s an article you may find helpful that uses quotes from Maximus. orthodoxchristiantheology.com/2020/07/21/what-is-gnomic-will-according-to-maximus/ Great video!
Absolutely love your videos homie🥺 I so appreciate the work you do and the nuances that go into your summaries! Praying for you personally and your ministry:)
I'm Muslim but Maximus the Confessor has recently become a fascination of mine. I don't expect to see any enlightening this he may say about Islam (given the cringe and lies that John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas wrote), but I am however very interested in his Christology. What I've heard and read about him so far seems to be that he ties off loose ends in Christology that are very clumsily done in other popular Christologies. He also appears to be a prominent Neoplatonist (like Augustine before him and Justin Martyr), so I'm interested to see exactly what he does with it.
Although I am more Orthodox leaning I applaud you for being a Protestant and doing your due diligence into researching the foundations of our faith and where many of our tenants have come from! At my former Protestant church I was disillusioned by how the pastor couldn't answer my questions regarding the early church so you are doing your fellow Protestants an incredible service!
I agree that Protestants need to learn more about the history of the church, as it’s very important for edification, even if it doesn’t directly affect salvation. I am Protestant myself and have been reading a lot on church fathers and Christian history, and I can’t help but think, “no one In my Protestant circles have ever mentioned this history nor know about it” I wouldn’t be surprised if they only know about Martin Luther bc of school, that’s certainly the only reason *I* knew of him.
Sadly, most people are content with being ignorant of history. I am unhappily largely ignorant, but trying to change that!
Thanks Caleb. A thing or two to point out though. The passion mentioned by Maximus is not referring to the English word passion as we comprehend it today. For Maximus, passion is a movement of the soul contrary to nature (Car 2:16), either in irrational love or in senseless hate. Thus, it's not that dissimilar from Augustine's. In a postlapsarian state, passion "attached" to irrational human thought (compound logismos). If we give consent to this thought, then we sin. Thus, for Maximus, it is not sin that introduced passions; rather, our will/love towards passions brings about sin.
Your points are exactly right Kelvin. One must be careful when discussing what Maximus means by passion.
Right. I was thinking the same. For Maximus, he makes clear distinction between the sin I cause and the sin I commit; what I commit was the deliberate wicked use of my will to focus and attain on unnatural pleasure to the spiritual mind, thereby willingly transgressing, which lead to the sin caused by that will, namely the liability to passions because of the distortion and darkening of the spiritual mind that fell into confusion and abuse of what is good. Still, nonetheless, I could not wrap up my mind around his idea that sexual pleasure and human conception were somehow the products of the transgression. What are your thoughts on this?
If you look at the Greek word for passion it’s similar to where we get our word for pathology (study of disease) πάθος páthos. So you are exactly write about Saint Maximus the confessor’s usage of passion.
Protestants should familiarise themselves with Patristic studies especially Christology, how the faith was put together
This was a really good introduction into Maximus and although you aligned yourself with Augustine (western) theology in terms of passions, I still felt more connected with what Maximus had to say. The disconnect I feel from attending protestant churches is related to this to some extent, but it's primarily to do with western churches focussing on atonement and how rudimentary pagan that can seem, especially without the centrality of the incarnation. Thank you for your insight.
I just love St. Maximus. I approached his theology when I was still an atheist, and something in his way to conceptualize Christianity struck a chord with me. Now I just can't see how you can understand anything in reality without Christ.
As an architect starting to going down the rabbit hole of architectural theory and philosophy, the EO seem to be right in their conception of architecture, in this case specifically Maximus, but great video nonetheless.
The teachings of the Church Fathers basically have nothing to do with the Protestant heresy. Protestants have no idea about what salvation is or how it’s acquired. Seek out the church established by Christ and the apostles. The rest are incomplete and just false.
It's pretty ridiculous how you keep saying "O.T.C.M.O.J.C., or whatever I called it" when you could say the proper name in the same amount of time.
Although there have been a very few Orthodox Christians in recent times who, apparently motivated by their opposition to hasty reunion efforts between Orthodox and Papal ecumenists, tried to write St. Augustine out of the canon of recognized Church fathers, theirs is a very atypical opinion. St. Augustine of Hippo is very much one of the Church fathers, all of whom are recognized as such by the longstanding consensus both east and west, and although Augustine, who tends to be as underweighted in the east as he is overweighted in the west, expressed some theological opinions that the east did not accept, that only illustrates why no individual church father is an infallible guide, but rather we must look to the phronema (the "mind" of the Church), expressed in the Latin west as the "consensus patrum," consensus of the fathers. One's predilection for the writings of one father more than another is no reason to prefer Protestantism (non sequitur, a fallacy of logic), since none of the fathers was even remotely Protestant in outlook. During the Dark Ages, knowledge of the Greek tongue entirely died out in the west for centuries, with the consequence that those eastern fathers who had not yet been translated into Latin were neglected while Augustine, the most prolific Christian writer until Karl Barth the Lutheran in the 20th century, became an overwhelming influence. (However, _The Ladder of Divine Ascent_ by the early 7th century monk of St. Katherine's Monastery by Mt. Sinai, St. John Climacus, "the Climber," did get translated and was the second most read book in the Middle Ages, behind only the Bible, but it is more concerned with the cultivation of personal piety than with theological questions.)
I think the idea of beautiful architecture isn’t incongruent with transformation of the common. I think it calls the common to a higher standard of beauty, where a plain Jane Baptist church no more beautiful than the surrounding buildings is not calling the surroundings to more glory but rather letting the common be the highest beauty there is.
I am not orthodox, but looking that way more towards that increasingly.
Slowly my friend you're going to eat those convicted protestant words. I think you're gonna start to understand one's how tradition works and you look at the ideas of how literal the sacraments and the holy mysteries are actually taken by the early church father's you have read.
In the Orthodox world (notably the balkan countries) every village and city neighborhood has a town square with a church at its center. Mount Athos is distinctly and exclusively for monks.
Not true. I am from Bulgaria, there are villages with mostly ethnic turkish population which dont have a church.
Should theology be a preference?
Hey your enthusiasm is empowering! Btw, - “Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” - Seraphim of Sarov - this is what Father on Mount Athos are doing. One hermit (monk Rafail Noica) said once: I am not isolating myself from your but for you. Being with God, enlarging one's heart so much (like Saint Siluoan the Athonite) to accommodate the entire humanity within is what monks do, in deep retreat. Of course, then the local Churches in cities are an extension of that and having a complementary role. In Romania we have both, isolated monasteries and hundreds of orthodox Churches in cities as well
I have just started my study of Maximus, and I am thrilled with his view of God’s purpose in the incarnation. I think you did a brilliant job of presenting this. I’m subscribing!
I'm seeing it 2 years after posting but it was cool, man. Gonna check this book out. You're the second time Maximus The Confessor has caught my attention this week.
Check out the podcast by Fr. Thomas Hopko called “Speaking the Truth in Love” and check out the episode “Resisting Like St. Maximus” it’s awesome
as a cradle Orthodox, I like the more sober decoration you find at mission churches, village chapels, etc. Just a few icons, clean walls, open spaces
A strange thing has happened now in that the vast majority of “Protestants” today are very happy with icons and pictures of Jesus, whereas the historic reformed Protestants are largely anti-depictions of any Persons of the Godhead in view of the second commandment.
Oh boy OK so I think you're missing the point of architecture then here. We don't hate the physical world be loved of physical world otherwise we wouldn't have icons. Our main goal in life is to sanctify and make it wholly I am making a holy which is taking on the role of Christ through the incarnation and baptism Chrismation. So when you go into any orthodox church and they're all different by the way. They all are reflecting different ways heaven looks they're mirrors to heaven and showing that the kingdom of God is here on Earth assets and heaven and the link between the church triumphant and church militant
I'm constantly surprised at how many protestants claim to have read the fathers and still think the protestant position is the correct one...
If Jesus truly understood the passions and had a human telos, why did He remain celibate?
Great Video! Educational and Informative, Keep up the good work. Blessings!!
Does anyone know what excerpts Jonathan Pageau used to support his idea of the logos (some sort of realm created in the human mind made of consciousness or attention)? Thanks!
As to the final statement I would say that the world is impermanent and that which is God is eternal.
Thanks for the video. Just read the intro and wanted a simple explanation of what’s going on before I dive into the text. The video was VERY helpful. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more popular patriotic series videos. 💚✌🏽
Philippians 2:6-7 "in very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
He was fully human and equal to God but did not use it to benefit himself. His will is his own but by his triune nature, since before time, has always been in unity with the father.
this video is so dense and wonderful. one of the best videos i’ve ever seen on christian youtube
Thanks for this! I do hope you do more of these
In which book does he write of Islam?
Great topic but I wish you would slow down a bit.
I don’t even know how you begin to form an opinion on the argument between Maximus and Augustine. 😮💨
Sounds like the protestant idea of "reordering" the passions and senses is a lukewarm approach. It's the same mindset that says "Jesus didn't really want us to give our possessions to the poor, but just not to be too attached to possesions". Much easier to allow self to enjoy sex and money rather than eschewing all in favor of putting the uncreated realm first.
I love what you're doing brother but so much of your research and your brilliant mind is doing this remove from the orthodox church. What I mean is like some of your assumptions are wrong especially on how church functions and it building. You are reading this my man please find your local orthodox priest sit down with and have coffee.
Thanks for interacting with my videos! I am genuinely open minded and open hearted as I continue to study and pray about Eastern theology. I hope to meet with priests and theologians soon. Thanks for giving me space as I continue to clunkily work through these ideas!
@@CalebSmith3 It is struggle it's definitely a struggle. But I was falling into it I had a fight to zeal you get from it. My friend said it was comparable to a cage calvanist.😂🤣😅
If you explore it more brother you're gonna see the a lot of things the orthodox church died in preservation of some of of some of our most ancient practices as being part of the body of Christ.
I love your journey!! I love how you love the fathers. One of the days you should try to get reading both the cappudocian fathers and the desert fathers and mothers
You are articulating it extremely well. Brilliant and illuminating!
Thank God for patristics🙏🙏
Thanks for the video. I hope you will read this message.
In early Christianity and Orthodox faith today Passions are bad, there is no correct order of the passions.
Quote:
"Passions are the uncontrolled desires that come from our bodily needs. They subordinate our soul to our egoistic or self will. They come about because we forget about God and only think of our own needs. The seven passions are: gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness and pride."
Passions must be eliminated if we want to stop sinning. Gluttony is the lowest that leads to all others, we fight it with fasting. Overeating is the root of much sin. Pride is the hardest to eliminate, however if the pride falls, all of the other passions will fall at this time, and we will be truly free.
We as Christians should strive to be in the likeness of Christ, which means we must fight to eliminate the passions and build the virtues, with Love being greatest of all. If you read the list of passions, they work against Love, diminishing it within us.
So I hope that this will shed some light on the St. Maximus writings on the Passions.
Could you explain this.
If Jesus had a human telos then how did he avoid sin? How was it that Jesus who was fully man in all ways avoid sinning?
He perfectly subjugated his (universal) Human will to his Divine will.
'He was the only man without sin' can be understood to mean "he was the only man to not entertain the demonic thoughts projected into human consciousness by the devil".
I loved this. I have been wanting to read “The Cosmic Mystery” and was searching for an introduction. This was perfect. And I love your enthusiasm. Thank you so much!!
Hahaha, about time that you read that one.
Great video bro!
Haha... Good dog goal. Food and belly rubs.
To be human is to fail. How we react to failure will define us. Jesus never failed. How does that equate to him being fully human?
Depends how you define a failure.
Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Matthew 26:39 NET
That was at least stumbling so there you go..
I read this one too. Was really challenging.
What was the bibliographical info on the Maximus book you read from in the video?
Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ, trans. Blowers and Wilken, Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press.
Caleb you said you are protestant, which church do you attend???
I'm a Reformed Baptist
Thank you…friend
Great !!! thanks
How can a person buy one of those books?
Online
It is impressive how I can agree so much on the first point - after all, why would we want to be redeemed from our sins if God were not to be our Beloved? -, and, like you, disagree so much on the second - why would God create a world and even Himself enter it if it were not to be redeemed and made even better in the end?
Augustine's quote was on point.
Looking forward to the next reviews. May God keep blessing your work and passions (and your cameraman's work too haha).
❤️
Maybe you get this from your the routings when they talk about passions. Passions is used from how I was tothologically those are your natural desires that are broken. But when saying overcoming them it's most likely setting them straight a sanctifying them to the point that they are no longer passions but they are what they are always meant to be in your human nature.
I enjoyed the video and I’m pleased that you’re delving into the PPS. You certainly didn’t start off easy by choosing Maximus! Respectfully, I think Maximus’ argument surrounding passions is way more nuanced than presented. I was surprised you didn’t mention the fact that he is mainly attributing passions to what’s called the gnomic will, or the will which chooses the assumed good. This is the will he states isn’t natural to humanity. If it were then Christ would be considering his options during his temptations, which would mean he was debating whether or not to choose evil. Maximus also argues that there is a prelapsarian will which Adam had as a kind of natural stability or in more crude terms a blank slate. Adam had choice but he didn’t have a gnomic will. He was created to choose good, not to deliberate within himself. However, because of his lacking of wisdom Satan was able to decieve Adam into sinning by playing upon that immaturity. Adam’s choice to even entertain the idea of eating the fruit was the fall of free choice, not eating the apple itself. By choosing what he believed was an assumed good this led to a gnomic will which further chained humanity after the fall. By contrast Christ had a natural human will (prelapsarian) in one hypostasis (divine and human). Christ’s human will was not a gnomic will and was united to the divine in one hypostasis, which was always the plan of salvation through the incarnation (man and God to be united). Adam didn’t have this union with God, but through Christ man can now have union with God through theosis. If our gnomic will is natural to man then Christ would need to have it to be fully man. But if he had a gnomic will then he had a will which chooses the assumed good leaving for the possibility of sin. Christ could never sin because by being God and man he chose good even before he grew in age/wisdom as Isaiah 7:15 states: “Before the Child knew or advanced in evil, He chose the good.” Christ’s will was prelapsarian not gnomic. Additionally, you can tell by the similar way both Adam and Christ were tempted. Both were tempted by truths not by using their passions with lies. Adam’s will was not deified nor was it unified with God the Word, so he was able to be deceived.
I know that was a lot but here’s an article you may find helpful that uses quotes from Maximus.
orthodoxchristiantheology.com/2020/07/21/what-is-gnomic-will-according-to-maximus/
Great video!
Absolutely love your videos homie🥺 I so appreciate the work you do and the nuances that go into your summaries! Praying for you personally and your ministry:)
Thank you Ben!
Yes please do more!!
I'm Muslim but Maximus the Confessor has recently become a fascination of mine. I don't expect to see any enlightening this he may say about Islam (given the cringe and lies that John of Damascus and Thomas Aquinas wrote), but I am however very interested in his Christology.
What I've heard and read about him so far seems to be that he ties off loose ends in Christology that are very clumsily done in other popular Christologies. He also appears to be a prominent Neoplatonist (like Augustine before him and Justin Martyr), so I'm interested to see exactly what he does with it.