Perpetual rest: The renovation of the Aristotelian movement in the theology of Maximus the Confessor

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleΣτάσις ἀεικίνητος: Η ανακαίνιση της αριστοτελικής κινήσεως στη θεολογία Μαξίμου του Ομολογητού
3. Language term English
4. lemma author Koutalis, Vangelis
5. lemma category Modes of interaction > Orthodox critique of science - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Patristic studies - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Eschatology - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Premodern _modern_ postmodern - Orthodox Anthropology - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning > Orthodox gnosiology - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning > Mysticism and Orthodox spiritual experience - Ethics - Concepts of knowledge and modes of reasoning > Sources of knowledge (empiricism/rationalism)
6. Publication date 27-02-2017
7. lemma work Betsakos, Vasileios [Author]. Perpetual rest: The renovation of the Aristotelian movement in the theology of Maximus the Confessor
8. lemma manifestations Στάσις ἀεικίνητος: Η ανακαίνιση της αριστοτελικής κινήσεως στη θεολογία Μαξίμου του Ομολογητού - Athens: Armos, 2006.
9. Keywords Aristotle - Aristotelian Physics - Maximus the Confessor - apophatisim - ontology - cosmology - morality - deification - participation - Orthodox doctrine of the Uncreated and the Created (Άκτιστο-Κτιστό) - eschatology
10. Citations
    1. <p>Betsakos, V. [Μπετσάκος, Β.] (2006). <em>Στάσις ἀεικίνητος: Η ανακαίνιση της αριστοτελικής κινήσεως στη θεολογία Μαξίμου του Ομολογητού</em>. Athens: Armos.</p>
11. Lemma body

    1. The topic of Betsakos’ book is the concept of movement in its versions presented in the Aristotelian philosophy and in the theology of Maximus the Confessor. In his preliminary remarks the author argues that Maximus draws his philosophical arsenal (the philosophical vocabulary used, conceptual distinctions, structures of thought etc.) from the works of Aristotle, and the concept of movement permeates the whole of his theology. By acknowledging both the distance separating the two thinkers and the implications of the fact that any modern historian or philosopher actually speaks from a perspective which is alien to Maximus and Aristotle, being unavoidably situated within the context of modern Western scientific mentality, Betsakos maintains that Aristotelian philosophy, if treated as a guide offering elementary philosophical and scientific knowledge, may well serve effectively as a way-out off the presently dominant epistemological paradigm and as a bridge to Maximus’s texts.

       In the first section of the book, the ways in which Aristotle constructs the concept of movement are discussed, through a reading principally, but not exclusively, of the eight books of Physics. A principle governing this reading is the assumption that Aristotelian philosophy is of an apophatic character, since truth, in it, is not identified with the subjective ascertainment, or alternatively put, reality is not exhausted by reason. By thoroughly reviewing the concepts that Aristotle deploys in his Physics, such as those of movement (κίνησις), perfection (ἐντελέχεια), species (εἶδος), matter (ὕλη), infinite (ἄπειρον), etc., Betsakos concludes that, for Aristotle, movement refers back to the very essence of beings, time and space exist in a relative mode, and God is inscribed in the same existential order as the other beings.

       The second section is dedicated to the works of Maximus. The notions of immobility, (ἀκινησία), perpetuality (ἀεικινησία), and movement (κινησις), as attributes of God, are discussed in detail within the framework of Maximus’ theological problematic, which involves questions such as the relational, Triadic unity of God, the process of creation, the divine grace and providence, the creative movement of God towards beings, the (pre-existing in God) reasons of beings, the descension from reasons to beings and the ascension from beings to reason, and the status of human beings as mediators for the salvation of the Creation. The author shows that for Maximus the process of creation amounts to the transmission of the movement, time and space are created by God, the providence of God for beings is identical with His love for them, the movement of beings links the cause of their creation to the finality of their creation, and the movement of beings, unless it becomes diverted and self-referential, encounters the movement of God functioning thus as a vehicle for the return of the Creation to God.

       This scheme bears also important anthropological and gnoseological implications. The Aristotelian philosophy is renovated, and not just endorsed or re-interpreted. Maximus transposes the concepts drawn from it to the new historical reality which is marked by the actual presence of Christianity. In this context, human knowing abilities, the natural reality to be known, the methods adopted by human knowing agents, and the anticipated impact of these methods, are re-evaluated in the light of the doctrine of the Uncreated and the Created, of the conception of human beings as images of God that can accomplish their existential telos in the imitation of their prototype, and of the knowledge of the unknowability of God as for His substance. Practical philosophy, natural theory, and theological mystagogy: these are the three stages, or rather facets of a single course, that can be only fulfilled by beings who resume the responsibility of acting as persons inspired by divine love, leading to ‘Sabbath’, to the condition of passionlessness, of resting movement or of perpetual rest.