The ecclesiology of Saint Maximos the Confessor

Louth, A.

doi:10.1080/1474225042000288920

The ecclesiology of Saint Maximos the Confessor

Louth, A.

Authors

A. Louth

Abstract

Maximos wrote no work expressly on the Church, the nearest being his work, the Mystagogia, on the Divine Liturgy. This article explores the notion of the Church presented in the Mystagogia, which focuses on the action of the Divine Liturgy, and the way in which what happens in the Church is reflected at every level of reality, from the transcendent reality of God, through the manifold unity of the cosmos, to the depths of the human soul. This vision of the Church — at once cosmic, eschatological, eucharistic and ascetic — is then related to Maximos' views on the institutional Church, as revealed in a few works preserved and related to his struggle for Orthodoxy during the monothelite controversy. These views concerned the place of the priestly hierarchy, especially the papacy, and also the claims of the Byzantine emperor to involve himself in doctrinal matters.

Citation

Louth, A. (2004). The ecclesiology of Saint Maximos the Confessor. International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 4(2), 109-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/1474225042000288920

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	2004-07
Deposit Date	Nov 14, 2008
Publicly Available Date	Nov 14, 2008
Journal	International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church
Print ISSN	1474-225X
Electronic ISSN	1747-0234
Publisher	Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	4
Issue	2
Pages	109-120
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/1474225042000288920
Keywords	Mystagogia, Divine Liturgy, Church, Orthodoxy, Papacy.
Publisher URL	http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1080/1474225042000288920