That Creation Is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor Jordan Daniel Wood
That Creation is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor Jordan Daniel Wood A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the department of Theology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Graduate School September 2018 ©Copyright 2018 Jordan Daniel Wood That Creation is Incarnation in Maximus Confessor Jordan Daniel Wood Advisor: Boyd Taylor Coolman, PhD Abstract This dissertation argues that Maximus conceives the logic of creation from nothing as the logic of the divine Word’s historical Incarnation. It first studies the peculiar features of Maximus’s Neochalcedonian christology in order to understand what he means by “Incarnation” (Chapter 1). It then discovers this same logic operative in Maximus’s protology (Chapter 2) and eschatology (Chapter 3). I therefore conclude that Maximus’s declaration, “The Word of God, very God, wills that the mystery of his Incarnation be actualized always and in all things” (Amb 7.22), ought to be interpreted literally. Nicht jedwedem ist gegeben, das Ende zu wissen, wenigen, die Uranfänge des Lebens zu sehen, noch wenigeren, das Ganze vom Ersten bis zum Letzten der Dinge zu durchdenken. ~ F.W.J. von Schelling, Die Weltalter In hac autem consideratione est perfectio illuminationis mentis, dum quasi in sexta die videt hominem factum ad imaginem Dei. Si enim imago est similitudo expressiva, dum mens nostra contemplatur in Christo Filio Dei, qui est imago Dei invisibilis per naturam, humanitatem nostram tam mirabiliter exaltatem, tam ineffabiliter unitam, videndo simul in unum primum et ultimum, summum et imum, circumferentiam et centrum, alpha et omega, causatum et causam, Creatorem et creaturam, librum sciliet scriptum intus et extra; iam pervenit ad quandam rem perfectam, ut cum Deo ad perfectionem suarum illuminationum in sexto gradu quasi in sexta die perveniat, nec aliquid iam amplius restet nisi dies requiei, in qua per mentis excessum requiescat humanae mentis perspicacitas ab omni opere, quod patrarat.
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