Maximus the Confessor

Life

The Greek biography relates that Maximus was born into an aristocratic family in Constantinople and served as a secretary at the court of Emperor Heraclius. The Syriac biography, by contrast, states that he came from Palestine. Because the sources disagree, his birthplace and early career remain uncertain.

He left the court to become a monk. When Persian forces invaded in the 620s, he moved to Carthage in North Africa. Around this time he joined Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in opposing monothelitism (the teaching that Christ has only one will), which the emperor supported. In 645 he held a public debate in Carthage with Pyrrhus, the former Patriarch of Constantinople. He is also known to have been involved in the Lateran Council convened in Rome in 649 by Pope Martin I, which condemned monothelitism.

Around 653 he was arrested on the emperor's orders and endured repeated trials and exiles. At his final trial in 662, his tongue and right hand were cut off, and he was exiled to Lazica, east of the Black Sea, where he died that same year. He received the title "Confessor" because he bore witness to the faith steadfastly, even to the point of martyrdom.

Ministry and Contributions

The central tenet of Maximus's teaching is dyothelitism: the doctrine that because Jesus Christ is true God and true man, he possesses both a divine will and a human will. Maximus held that consistently following the "two natures" confessed by the Council of Chalcedon leads to "two wills." As evidence he cited the prayer in Gethsemane: "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). He read this as the human will freely submitting to the will of God. After his death, the Third Council of Constantinople (680–681) officially affirmed this position.

His major works include the Ambigua (explanations of difficult passages), the Questions to Thalassius, the Mystagogy (an interpretation of the meaning of the Church's liturgy), and the Four Hundred Chapters on Love. He developed in depth the doctrine of deification (theosis), according to which human beings come to participate in union with God through the Incarnation.

Influence on the Korean Church

Maximus has had little direct influence on Korean Protestantism. He is introduced mainly in seminary courses on church history and Christology as a central figure in the monothelite controversy. Many Protestant denominations accept the Christology formulated by the early councils, and for this reason his dyothelitism is treated as part of orthodox Christology in Protestant theology as well. In recent years, as interest in Eastern Orthodox spirituality and patristic theology has grown, some of his writings have also been introduced.

Assessment

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church venerate him as a saint and regard him as one of the foremost Church Fathers. In the twentieth century he received renewed attention in the West as well, prompted in part by the studies of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Protestant theologians also generally hold his contributions to the Christological controversies in high regard. Views diverge, however, regarding his doctrine of deification and his mystical tendencies. Some maintain that the relationship between his thought and the Protestant understanding of justification and sanctification must be examined carefully.