The Word of God, very God, wills that the mystery of his Incarnation be actualized always and in all things. #MaximusTheConfessor #Theology

The Word of God, very God, wills that the mystery of his Incarnation be actualized always and in all things. #MaximusTheConfessor

In some ways it is a much better introductory text than On Love, simply because it has less minutiae. It may also be observed that, as primary texts go, this one—being not much more than 30 pp. long—does not tend to meander much. It is fairly straightforward.

Beginning students of #patristics may find it much easier, for example, to read The Ascetic Life by #MaximusTheConfessor than, say, On the Incarnation of the Word of God by Athanasius, or even On the Apostolic Preaching by Irenaeus.

The Ascetic Life by #MaximusTheConfessor, as his first major work (preceding On Love), may be read and viewed as a lens from which our perception of his schema and theory finds continuity and expansion as we read his later works. Nearly all his themes are there in seminal form.

Excepting the long diatribe (if one may be pardoned for the expression) on judgement, the dialogue is very balanced and can serve as a good introduction to the thinking of Maximus.

#Patristics #ChurchFathers

My main interests as #primarysources are the #ApostlicFathers, #Irenaeus, #Origen, the #desertfathers, #Evagrius, #JohnCassian #MaximusTheConfessor, #GregoryPalamas, and the #Philokalia and its accompanying literature.