The Whole Mystery of Christ

A thoroughgoing examination of Maximus Confessors singular theological vision through the prism of Christs cosmic and historical Incarnation. Jordan Daniel Wood changes the trajectory of patristic scholarship with this comprehensive historical and systematic study of one of the most creative and profound thinkers of the patristic era: Maximus Confessor (560662 CE). Wood's panoramic vantage on Maximuss thought emulates the theological depth of Hans Urs von Balthasars Cosmic Liturgy while also serving as a corrective to that classic text. Maximus's theological vision may be summed up in his enigmatic assertion that the Word of God, very God, wills always and in all things to actualize the mystery of his Incarnation. The Whole Mystery of Christ sets out to explicate this claim. Attentive to the various contexts in which Maximus thought and wroteincluding the wisdom of earlier church fathers, conciliar developments in Christological and Trinitarian doctrine, monastic and ascetic ways of life, and prominent contemporary philosophical traditionsthe book explores the relations between Gods act of creation and the Words historical Incarnation, between the analogy of being and Christology, and between history and the Fall, in addition to treating such topics as grace, deification, theological predication, and the ontology of nature versus personhood. Perhaps uniquely among Christian thinkers, Wood argues, Maximus envisions creatio ex nihilo as creatio ex Deo in the event of the Words kenosis: the mystery of Christ is the revealed identity of the Words historical and cosmic Incarnation. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of patristics, historical theology, systematic theology, and Byzantine studies.