Section 05: Ascetic Teaching
St. Maximus the Confessor’s two great ascetical works – the Liber Asceticus (The Ascetic Life) and the Four Hundred Texts on Love (Centuries on Love) – present the practical path of the Christian life: the keeping of the Lord’s commandments, the healing of the passions, and the ascent to love as the goal of all ascesis. Together they form the accessible doorway into Maximus’ vast theological synthesis.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| The Ascetic Life (Liber Asceticus) | The dialogue between an old monk and a young brother; the Lord’s commandments as the path; the devil’s three temptations of Christ; the accessible entry into Maximus |
| Centuries on Love | The Four Hundred Texts on Love: prologue to Elpidios, fourfold structure, love as the goal of ascesis, the three powers of the soul, the passions, and the Evagrian inheritance transformed |
Overview
The Liber Asceticus and the Centuries on Love are almost certainly Maximus’ earliest surviving works, written in the 620s, before the great dogmatic struggles over the will and energies of Christ (Sherwood, ACW 21, Introduction; Louth, Maximus the Confessor, ch. 2). They belong to the monastic genres of the kephalaia (chapters) and the question-and-answer dialogue, and stand in direct continuity with the neptic tradition of Evagrius of Pontus, the Macarian Homilies, and the Desert Fathers.
What distinguishes Maximus is the architecture he gives this inherited material. Where Evagrius placed gnosis (knowledge) at the summit of the spiritual life, Maximus places agape (love). Ascesis is not for the sake of contemplation alone but for the sake of a love that embraces all human beings equally, in imitation of God’s own impartial providence.
Key Themes
- Love is the goal – not knowledge, but the love of God and neighbor crowns the ascetical life.
- The commandments are the path – keeping Christ’s commandments is the concrete form of ascesis.
- The three powers of the soul – the rational, incensive, and desiring powers, each healed and rightly directed.
- Dispassion (apatheia) engenders love – the passions are not annihilated but transfigured.
- The passions are healed, not merely suppressed – a continuity carried forward through the whole Orthodox tradition of spiritual direction.
See Also
- 06 — Mystagogy – the liturgical theology that crowns the ascetical ascent
- Orthodoxy Guide: Spiritual Direction – the tradition of eldership in which Maximus’ ascetical teaching lives
- St. Paisios: The Thoughts (Logismoi) – a 20th-century continuation of the neptic teaching on the passions
References
- Maximus the Confessor. The Ascetic Life; The Four Centuries on Charity. Trans. Polycarp Sherwood, OSB. Ancient Christian Writers 21. New York: Newman Press, 1955.
- The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 2. Trans. and ed. G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber and Faber, 1981.
- Louth, Andrew. Maximus the Confessor. The Early Church Fathers. London: Routledge, 1996.
- Thunberg, Lars. Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor. 2nd ed. Chicago: Open Court, 1995.