Related Books: Christianity and Hesychasm,  Prophets, Saints, Sages and Teachers

St. Maximus the Confessor, the greatest of Byzantine theologians, lived through the most catastrophic period the Byzantine Empire was to experience before the Crusades. This book introduces the reader to the times and upheavals during which Maximus lived.

Vincent Rossi

Andrew Louth has done a great service in making these texts of St. Maximus--some of his most important and most beautiful spiritual works--available to the English-speaking public. Yes, he is not always consistent in his translation of some of the terms Maximus uses; yes, one might quibble with his interpretation of the Confessor's thought here and there. But anyone who has ever tried his hand at translating even one passage of Maximus' notoriously difficult Greek will appreciate what Louth has actually accomplished and will give credit where credit is assuredly due. One of the greatest Maximus scholars of this century, Lars Thunberg, who has himself written perhaps the single most important monograph of the past fifty years on the Confessor's thought, <<Microcosm and Mediator>>, says in his own review (published in an Orthodox journal in England) of Louth's book: "His audacity is to be hailed, for the texts that he has chosen for translation are some of the most difficult: Ambigua 10 and 41...together with the very succinct and demanding Letter 2 on Love...translations of Maximus texts of this complexity...may always be discussed and other renderings be suggested." Despite offering in his review alternative renderings of his own of some difficut passages, Thunberg does not let his scholarly criticism outweigh his assesment of the overall value of the book, and goes on to praise Louth for producing "this beautiful volume, containing both a substantial introduction and remarkable translations...Andrew Louth has certainly given to his readership a most valuable introduction not only to the 'thinking' but also the 'thought' of the Confessor. His challenging observations provide a stimulus and an agenda for us all."

The "substantial introduction" is all of that, and is, in my view, simply one of the best introductions to the thinking and theology of St. Maximus in print. It is itself worth the price of the book.