1

Maximus on Embracing the other: Lessons from History and Contemporary Christian
Thought
Kostake Milkov

Religion seems to be the usual suspect in contemporary times as the source of

violence from an individual to a coprporative level. Much has been said in response to this
assumption, both by those who agree and dissagere with it, and it is not in the scope and the
subject matter of this essay to address this particular claim. The essay will ratherlook at the
basic ideas of a sixth century Church Father, Maximus the Confessor, together with some
other ancient and contemporary Christian writers, to display the best practices that Christian
thought can offer against the principle of violence, and it can offer a path of thinking of the
role of religion, more precisely Christianity, towards flourshing of societies in an increasingly
conflicting world.

Maximus on the self-emptying () as the principle of the Christian faith

Maximus commentary on the Lords Prayer (Expositio orationis dominicae) is his

most succinct spiritual exegesis of Scripture which, according to him, yields seven
revelations or mysteries about the salvation of humanity: theology, adoption in grace,
equality of honour with the angels, participation in eternal life, the restoration of nature to
itself ... the abolition of the law of sin, and the overthrowing of the tyranny of evil.1
Maximus speaks briefly about each of these at the beginning of the Expositio orationis
dominicae, linking every one of them with a specific petition in the Lords Prayer. The thread
that goes through all these mysteries is the believers imitation of Christs ,
1 Or. dom. (CCSG 23:31.80-85; trans. Berthold 1985: 102-103).

demonstrating how this translates into the believers encounter with the affairs of the world.
Maximus insists that by his , Christ re-affirms Gods assessment of the created order
as being good, and confirms his plan for a final transformation and unification.2 In a
relatively short text one can see a linear development of Maximus ascetical thinking which
shows the gist of his view of renunciation otherwise dispersed throughout his corpus of
works; second, Maximus connection of the mysteries which present the highlights of his
ascetical ideal supports the argument of this research, namely that each mystery is
discovered through the believers commitment to carry out the spiritual plan that proceeds
from praying the Lords Prayer. This plan God carries out through Christ, and subsequently
through the believers who participate and imitate him. It is this mutual kenotic movement by
which the believer by the humbling of the passions takes on divinity in the same measure
that the Word of God [became] genuinely man.3 The corresponding response of the Christian
to the of Christ for the sake of the world is the believers personal also for
the sake of the world. Alan Cooper finds in such statements in Maximus an indication that
human suffering can be redemptive:4

In and through his particular sufferings, all

human suffering - an ontological and theological more
than psychological reality - is given potentially
redemptive significance, in such a way that our
salvation resides in the death of the only-begotten Son
of God.
Maximus makes this clear at the very onset of his exposition of the Lords Prayer:
For the words of the prayer make request for whatever the Word of God himself wrought

2 Ibid., 30.41-44; 102.

3 Ibid., 32.101-33.105; 103.
4 Cooper 2005: 119; cf. Ep. 12 (PG 91:468D).

through the flesh in his self-abasement.5 In other words, everyone who says the words of
Christ in the prayer is also asking to participate in Christs kenotic self-abegnation.
In the first part of Expositio orationis dominicae, Maximus writes prologue-like
comments on each of the mysteries which are subsequently discussed with the invocation and
each of the petitions of the prayer. The invocation Our Father who art in heaven, and the
first and the second petitions, Hallowed be thy Name, and Thy kingdom come yield,
under Maximus interpretation, the doctrine of the Trinity. Maximus reminds the readers that
it is Christ the incarnated who teaches the words of the prayer. He is the one who
reveals the mysteries, and more importantly, he reveals the Father and the Holy Spirit.6
Theology is then about the knowledge of the Triune God who in the takes
human nature upon himself to make that knowledge available to men. He is the author
() and the mediator () of the goods that the Father, in the Spirit, bestows
on men. In his monograph Le Christ et la trinite selon Maximie le Confesseur Pierre Pirret
interprets this passage in Maximus in the following way:7

The Lord Jesus Christ, by his own flesh,

manifests to men the Father whom they do not know.
The unique, self-identical Lord Jesus leads to the
Father, by the Spirit, the men he has reconciled to
himself. In his affirmation of the mediator between the
Father and human beings, Maximus indicates the
relation between the Incarnation and the paschal
mystery.
Maximus says that the did this when he willed to empty himself in the
incarnation.8 By this self-emptying act he inaugurated the second mystery revealed in the
prayer, that of the adoption of the believers as children of God. In a short and dense text,
5 Or. dom. (CCSG 23: 30.65-67; trans. Berthold 1985: 102).
6 Ibid., 31.87-89; 103.
7 Pirret 1983: 60; quoted in Nichols 1993:67.
8 Or. dom. (CCSG 23:33.105-106; trans. Berthold 1985: 103).

Maximus shows that is the principal link between God who empties himself in the
incarnation of the , in order to truly participate in human nature, so that man can truly
participate in divine nature. But man has to reciprocate with his own kenosis. Initially it
should start at the level of the passions: by the humbling of the passions (
) it [the ] takes on divinity in the same measure that the Word of God willed to
empty himself of his own unmixed glory. 9
Further in Expositio orationis dominicae Maximus claims that the absence of the
male/female (/) tension in the soul lets it become a virgin-mother of Christ.10
When this passage is compared with Quaestiones ad Thalassium 40, where Maximus also
uses the image of mother of the , with the difference that the mother there is faith, it
will be seen that the purpose is not to supersede moral philosophy, but rather to fully prepare
man for it: Having first created the faith in us, the then becomes the Son of our faith
embodying himself through it into virtues in accord with [spiritual] praxis.11 It is an act
according to the of human nature by which the deviant aspect of passibility is
overcome. Commenting on the same passage of Expositio orationis dominicae, Lars
Thunberg writes:12
Maximus points out that man now must re-orient
the activity of his soul and turn his whole desire towards
God, so as to know only one pleasure (), the
pleasure which is contrary to that of the senses and
consists entirely of the living communion of the soul
with the logos.
This is according to Maximus the main reason for asceticism; Maximus uses the
argument of natural asceticism in his dispute with Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus asks Maximus: If that
which is natural to us does not appear through ascetic practices, but it is inbuilt in us, and

9 Ibid., 33.102-105; 103.

10 Or. dom. (CCSG 23: 50.399-402; trans. Berthold 1985: 109);
11 Q. Thal. 40 (CCSG 7: 273.125-128; trans. mine).
12 Thunberg 1995: 171.

virtue is natural, how is it that we acquire virtues through toil and ascetical practice?13
Maximus answer furthers the view that for him asceticism is a form of natural conduct that
gets rid not of natural, but of unnatural tendencies in man: The ascetical practices and the
toils have been contrived by the virtuous so that the deception of the senses will be separated
from the soul to which they have been attached, and not to introduce the virtues from
outside.14 This means that the tension between the intelligible and the sensible does not have
an ontological bearing. The tension is there as a result of malfunctioning of intelligible and
sensible faculties. Blowers comment gives the gist of Maximus thinking on this topic: 15
The tension between the sensible and intelligible
dimensions of creation is, in the context of Maximus
system, one of the economically based and intrinsic
polarities in the natural world that the human subject,
qua microcosm, is summoned to mediate in the vita
practica and vita contemplativa.
For example overcoming fleshly desires and material things is a basic requirement for
forgiveness. Of such a person Maximus writes: In truth he forgives, in spiritual detachment,
those who sin against him because no one at all can lay his hand on the good he zealously
seeks with all his desire.16 On the basis of the petition Forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those who trespass against us, Maximus derives the idea that the one who forgives
sets himself for God as an example of virtue.17 But this can be said only with the tantumquantum principle in mind. As much as man has become like God in forgiveness he can ask
that much to be forgiven by God. This again is determined by mans commitment to imitate
Christs kenosis:18
For if he wishes that as he forgave the debts of those
who have sinned against him, he also be forgiven by
God.
13 Pyr. (PG 91: 309B; trans. mine).
14 Ibid., 309C.
15 Blowers 1991: 99; authors italics.
16 Or. dom. (CCSG 23: 63.64.647-651; trans. Berthold 1985: 115).
17 Or. dom. (CCSG 23: 64.647-651; trans. Berthold 1985: 115).
18 Ibid., 64.656-65.664; 115.

The centrality of renunciation for Maximus is demonstrated in his explanation in

Expositio orationis dominicae as to why God first demands reconciliation between people.
This demand is so that God can show, ... that the disposition of those who are forgiven
accords with the state of grace.19 Forgiving anothers offences brings into perspective mans
role as a microcosm and a mediator. Only in the context of Gods grace and guidance does
renunciation find its place of preparation for a life of imitation of God.20 In interpreting the
Bible, Maximus never loses sight of the biblical portrayal of the cosmic battle which has an
impact on earthly affairs, and that the kingdom of God that Jesus inaugurated is in contrast to
that of the earthly governments (Matt. 20:28 and parallels). Christians should forgive all
those who have sinned against them, and identify with all victims of power as Jesus himself
identified with humanity by taking on himself human flesh.
Maximus adds one more incentive to his plea against hatred that causes estrangement
from those who have caused one grievance: in forgiving them one acknowledges them as
fellow human beings.21 Maximus anthropological egalitarianism is based on the idea that all
human beings in their basic natural state are of equal status before God because they are
created after his image. All human persons carry the divine image in themselves, and should
act to each other as God in Christ acts towards them by practising forgiveness. In the Liber
asceticus 8, the image of God is the motif that enables and requires one to forgive:22
For those that are created after the image of God
and are motivated by reason, that are thought worthy of
knowledge of God and receive their law from Him, it is
possible not to repulse those that cause grief and to love
those that hate them.... When the Lord says: Love your
enemies; do good to them that hate you, and what
follows, He does not command the impossible, but
19 Or. dom. (CCSG 23: 65.673-674; trans. Berthold 1985: 116).
20 Q. Thal. 33 (CCSG 7: 229.26-230.37).
21 Ibid., 69.747; 117.
22 LA 8 (CCSG 40: 19.142-21.151; Sherwood 1955a: 107); cf. Lk. 6:27-28.

clearly what is possible.... The Lord Himself ... has

shown it to us by His very works.
The works of Christ in the Liber asceticus correspond to his self-emptying act in the
Expositio orationis dominicae. This means that human beings are ordered by God to do what
is clearly within the capacity of their nature when aided by divine grace. The renouncing act
of self-emptying forgiveness is in reality nothing exceptional, which makes renunciation as
such nothing exceptional either. On the contrary, as an image of God it is expected from man
as by default. If he is to be forgiven man is to forgive: Let us then love one another and be
loved by God; let us be patient with one another and He will be patient with our sins. Let us
not render evil for evil, and we shall not receive our due for our sins.23 In the Expositio
orationis dominicae, Maximus claims that this is the only way that one can pray for
forgiveness of ones own sins.24
Maximus reminds his readers that they are to
conquer the world in the same manner as Christ
conquered it. The wording in the Liber asceticus 15 is
strong confirmation of Maximus ideal of love as the
renunciation of all satanic scheming and reasoning.
Victory is to be won through the love that is giving
up. The focal point of the apostles ministry of
reconciliation is that by giving way, they conquered
those who thought to conquer.25
The example of the divine selflessness and love for Maximus is not just a figurative
way of speaking, and literary device to incite believers to better appreciation of benevolence.
The example is for Maximus most literal. The exhortation in the quotation above, to be
concerned for others more than for ourselves, finds an echo in Maximus Epistle 44.
Maximus states that by the incarnation, God has fulfilled the law of love that he has
established. For Maximus this is a sign that the unthinkable has happened; God the absolute
23LA 42 (CCSG 40: 115.968-971; Sherwood 1955a: 133).
24 Or. dom. (CCSG 23: 69.747-751; trans. Berthold 1985: 117).
25 LA 15 (CCSG 40: 35.293; trans. Sherwood 1955a: 112).

being, the self-sufficient Creator to whom all creatures owe their existence, is willing to value
humanity, and in it the whole world, as something worth sacrificing for. The believers love is
proved true only if it pierces through the boundaries of self-love offering himself for the sake
of the other:26
Indeed, if he [Christ] has deliberately delivered
himself up to the passion and the death, willing to take
responsibility in our place, we should have suffered as
responsible, it is clear that he has loved us more than
himself, we for whose sake he gave himself to death,
and though the expression be bold it is clear
likewise that, as more than good, he elected to suffer
those outrages which were willed at that moment in the
Economy of our salvation, preferring them to his own
natural glory. Going beyond the dignity of God, and
transcending the glory of God, he made of the return to
him of those who were removed far away a more
insistent expression and manifestation of his own glory.
This Jesus is the Christ, the Lo&goj and the second u(po&stasij of the Trinity. For
Juan-Miguel Garrigues, the hypostatic versus the individualistic concept of man in Maximus
is crucial for the actualization of love and forgiveness for others:27
The hypostasis as life of charity, implies
intimate communion with our co-natural fellows, in the
likeness of the consubstantiality of the Trinitarian
Persons. Charity thus innovates our free will into that
glorious freedom which can enhypostatise, by
intention, self-same human nature into personal
communion, thus fulfilling, in a way that is beyond
itself, the aspiration of our nature which free will
claimed to satisfy in the absolutisation of its I.
Ultimately the process of bringing to unity of all creation through renunciation is
presented by Maximus with the fundamental biblical imagery of grace, forgiveness and
reconciliation. In his interpretation of these biblical topics a key role is played by the free
response of man to Gods grace and revelation. The free disposition of the soul in synergy
26 Ep. 44 (PG 91: 644AB; trans. mine).
27 Garrigues 1976: 180-181.

with Gods grace appropriates the reconciliation or in Maximus words the unification of the
whole world with God. Renunciation means overcoming the divisions achieving victory
through surrender!
The only way the real value and dignity of anything can be appreciated is to penetrate
beneath the surface, to be able to recognise its inner coherence and beauty, goodness and
truth. For Maximus, this is discovered in the potential of creation for its transformation; not
only renewal but resurrection as well. The continuity of the old is preserved, and yet, by
grace, is brought to a level that is utterly new. This newness is Gods ultimate gift a unity
between the Creator and the created. Maximus in his theological and ascetical writings aims
at nothing less than the restoration of the entire cosmos a restoration that can be realized
only through the patient outworking of voluntary kenosis.

The principle of renunciation for today?

After this outline of Maximus thought on renunciation, one can ask the question of
where this research could lead if it were taken beyond its immediate scope.
In the Ambiguum 7 he writes:28
But nothing that comes into being is its own
end, since it is not self-caused. [God] is that for the
sake of which all things exist, ... [He], however, is for
the sake of nothing.
In the context of the unwrapped meaning of Maximus thought in this study, these
words insists that the whole universe, all its beings, both animate and inanimate, have been
put into being and motion by another, and they owe their existence to someone else. Not a
single grain of dust has man as its end. Humanity is rather surpassed, and to be considered as
28 Amb. 7 (PG 91: 1072B-C; trans. Blowers and Wilken 2003: 48).

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one of the beings that have an ultimate end outside itself. On the contrary, mans role is not to
be an end, but rather a means of all beings reaching their rightful end. Maximus teaching on
renunciation could be taken as a principle that breaks the cycle of consumerism, replacing it
by giving, by which is meant giving not only from what is clearly superfluous, but giving
with the aim that others not be in dire need.
Maximus writes about people trapped in a selfish state of life:29
They misuse Gods creatures for the service of
the passions and do not contemplate the reason of
wisdom which is manifest in all things to know and
glorify God from his works, as well as to perceive
whence and what and why and where we are going from
the things which are seen.
Maximus detects self-love (filauti/a) as the source of all other passions, and sees in
self-love the reason for the disintegration of the unity of human nature. As a result of selflove human life has become very mournful, since men have become plunderers of each
other, because of rivalry and out of self-love.30 The opposite of it is the example of Christ in
Colossians 3:11, who is all in all.31 Racial, ethnic, and social origins are irrelevant when
humans realize that that they are all united in Christ. Thus one cannot talk any more of the
value of a man deeming him less human (Scythian) or putting a price on him (slave). One
can only talk of human dignity, which is equal for all who are created after the image of God.
By accepting their neighbour as their equal human beings, men acknowledge their common
createdness, owing their existence to Christ who is all in all. Man therefore cannot treat
other creatures and their habitat as if they existed only to gratify his desires. On the contrary
man is created with the precise task of leading all other beings to reach the fullness of their
potential.32

29 Th. Oec 2.41(PG 90: 1144B; trans. Berthold 1985: 156).

30 Q. Thal. introduction (CCSG 7: 33.271-272; trans mine).
31 Ibid. 55.485; 111.
32 Blowers and Wilken 2003: 38.

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Accordingly, all Christians are called to an

ascetic life broadly understood, insofar as every
believer must aspire, through disciplined practice and
contemplation, exercising every level of the life of the
soul and the body, to participate in the transfiguration of
the cosmos indeed, to be a miniature demonstration of
its realization and thereby to share actively in Christs
mediation of the new creation.
The challenge of the other
A modern Theologian who relates with his vision for love and nonviolent conflict
resolution is Miroslav Volf whose book Exclusion and Embrace in which thinking through
the essence of otherness, he gives a plausible response to the paranoid division on us and
them, or to the principle of exclusion which he defines as, barbarity within civilization,
evil among the good, crime against the other right within the walls of the self.33
The beginning of the 21st century offers surprisingly cruel reality. The pictures from
this reality, brought to us daily by the media, can be reduced to the following concept:
otherness, the simple fact to be different in some way, is defined as an evil in itself. All of us
old enough to have encountered the violence and volatility in the Balkans in 90s of the last
century are living witnesses that this is the sad truth.
Beginning with the newly coined term ethnic cleansing connected to the wars in
Croatia, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Kosovo crisis and the armed conflict in
Macedonia, peoples in this region have been becoming increasingly aware that exclusion has
become the modern mortal sin. This is a sin that forces us to see reality through the prism of
our own suffering, that makes us to act out of fear and anger, giving us an excuse to have
clean conscience while being source of suffering for others, for those who are not in our
(smaller and smaller) circle.

33 Volf 1996: 60.

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The starting point of his journey is the New Testament metaphor of salvation as
reconciliation. Volf suggests the idea of embrace as a Theological solution to the problem of
exclusion.
The New Testament univocally emphasizes that salvation comes not only when we
are reconciled with God, learning to live next to each other, but also when we open
ourselves to the other. This is a dangerous move and carries high price with it. This is
nevertheless, the only worthy response to the same dangerous and priceless move with which
God has received us in his embrace. Or as Volf states, the will to embrace precedes any
truth about others and any construction of their justice.34
In the exposition of the personal vision for resolving the problem of the exclusion,
Volf listens to the voice of the past and the voices of the present. He tests his thesis in the
context of classical Theology, Philosophy, and feminist and postmodern thought. The end
result is the creative suggestion that the Christian teaching about the Holy Trinity, the
Incarnation and the cross as the best platform for elucidating even the most demanding sociopolitical themes, such as exclusion, oppression, justice, liberation and peace.
In other words, Volf insists that the answer to these questions must have as its guide
Gods self-sacrificial love shown by Jesus on the cross. It follows therefore, that
reconciliation between different groups of people with history of animosity is a process that
also requires from them selfless, unconditional love.
Addressing the victims that almost always in the future feature as perpetrators in the
name of just revenge, Volf encourages them to resist the experience of suffering to convert
into source of violence e In order to achieve this, each side needs to develop a double
vision the capacity to see with the eyes of the other too.
Having in mind Gods embrace all the time, Volf emphasizes its social implications.
With this attitude of arms wide-open God clearly communicates to the godless that He does
34 Ibid. 29.

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not want to leave them to their own evil. He gives himself to bring them into fellowship. We
are asked to do the same with our enemies, whomever they might happened to be, and
whatever might be our involvement in the initiation and pursuit of this enmity, because to
will to be oneself must entail the will to let the other inhabit the self.35
The key theses in the Exclusion and Embrace have important consequences for the
condition of the world today that, paradoxically turning into global village becomes less and
less tolerant towards the other. People are called to repentance, to forgiveness, to embrace not
only according to the example of Jesus, but also according the recognition that solely on the
narrow path to justice and peace, they can reach the coveted spiritual happiness.
Human flourishing: the reward of walking with God
In the final part of this essay the way of how religion can contribute towards
flourishing of humanity will be explored through the texts about the Logos in John chapter,
Gregory Nyssens teaching on akolouthia, and the OTs call to Abraham and the people of
Israel to surrender to his will.
In the opening three verses of his Gospel John acknowledges that the Word is Creator
of the world. Nothing that has being can be outside of the creative being of the Word. This
reminds us of our position as contingent beings in the midst of a contingent world. John
establishes the relationship between the Word and us. Not only that we are His creation, but
also that we are created through him indicates a more intimate intention of the relationship
that the Word wants to have with us. God could have created everything by a mere fiat
commanding into an existence. Instead He decided to create through His Word or Logos that
implicates much more than an uttered sound. In this way we are not creatures whose
existence indicates Gods sovereign will only, but first of all His love, and His personal
interest in His creation.

35 Ibid. 91.

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God desires us from the very moment of our conception in and through his Word. He
has eternally been thinking desirously about us. What does this say about human beings?
How we should experience ourselves? Johns suggestion will be to experience ourselves as
Gods beloved creatures, and as, Nicholas Wolterstorff suggests, find our great worth in that
belovedness. Wolterstorff goes as far as to claim that, other creatures, if they knew about
that love, would be envious.36
Besides this creative intimacy, something that the Church fathers will describe as eros
in the verses four and five John goes on to tell us about two other exceptional concepts
Life and Light! Let us think for a moment about Life. In Gen. 2:7 says that the Lord
breathed into his (mans) nostrils the breath of life and he become a living soul. We discover
here that the Spirit is involved in our becoming living beings. By becoming alive we are
endowed with the faculties that respond to our environment. And in our original state that
involves experiencing the creation in its full capacity. That includes our basic capacity to be
amazed and awed. Amazed and awed by what? By the unity, the goodness, the beauty, and
the truth of the creation. The concept of life is a concept of dynamic. Of living dunamis. Life
means that we were always meant to create culture into our living space. But culture based on
what Nigel Biggar calls a cosmic fulfillment that:37
[I]nvolves the emergence and securing of beings capable of appreciating, and freely
committing themselves to, what is true and good and beautifulthat is, it involves the growth
and establishment of a community of virtuous human persons. This is the human good: the
condition where persons flourish.
The other concept helps us to grasp this further. John says that this Life is at the same
time Light. In other words the only way we can live our lives authentically is to live them in
the context of Light, the first quality to stage the scene of the formless and empty earth,
36 Wolterstorff: 2008. 360.
37 Biggar 2013: ?.

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because he says, the Life was Light to the people, through which John wants to remind his
readers that the darkness is not the last word of the worlds destiny. The Light is the first and
the last Word in the worlds destiny. It is this Word about whom verse fourteen says that it
became flesh.
By taking fallen created nature upon him the Word began the work on its renewal
confirming creations original unity, goodness, beauty and truth. By the fact that we are here,
that we exist, and that we have been created in the image and likeness of the Creator, the only
way we can have our wholeness, our peace, or rather our stasis is to follow the example of
the Word that became one of us, and lived the life of a perfect man. What Christ did Gregory
of Nyssa defines as akolouthia. Akolouthia in Gregorys thought is the orderliness of the
whole creation. The only way that creation can function properly is to follow the innate
principles of order. Disorder is falling away from goodness and beauty. From this we see how
ontology and ethics are connected, with the one inevitably following the other. This linking
ontology, epistemology and ethics was a central notion in Christian patristic thought.
Akolouthia is both following intellectually and following as discipleship.38 Thus, all
imperatives to live a life which is not submitted to an inner logic of createdness collapse in
themselves since our trajectory is never our own but rather the one of ecstasy going outside
of oneself, and thus, reflecting the glory of the One whose image we carry.
In the example of the Logos of John's first chapter, the God-man Christ, humanity has
been introduced to the glorious possibility of union with God. In this way man can
experience God in the depth of his being. ... By affirming that this mutual penetration
without confusion occurs between God and man, Christianity has revealed the unfathomable
and indefinable mystery of the human person and his consciousness.39

38 Paulos: 1980. 52.

39 Staniloae: 1982. 14-15.

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Since God is love, to experience his love is to experience the fullness of His
divinity. To communicate that love to others is to communicate God himself. How can this
participation be expressed? I believe John Polkinghorne's Science and Creation offers a
scientific illustration or metaphor. Polkinghorne correlates the world of thought to the
physical world and suggests that man participates in the world of thought in a similar manner
to the way in which he participates in the physical world: he neither creates it nor exhausts its
content by his participation in it. It is rather like the way in which a particular diagrammatic
representation of a theorem in geometry participates in that theorem without being either its
origin or its full expression.40 We neither create nor exhaust God. But we might participate in
the divine nature without being either its origin or its full expression.41
The biblical view of man sees his existence and the existence of all creation as a result
of God's creative sustenance. Cut from God's creative activity a being becomes a non-being.
Therefore the decisive question about the created beings is not ontological: Why is this
being the being it is? The question is rather teleological: Why does beings exist at all?
The ontological question is asked by Greek philosophy and the answer would be that being is
as it is simply because it is an eternally self-existing entity temporarily modified by matter
and imperfectness. The teleological question is the pursuit of the Bible, and the biblical
answer would be that the purpose of existence is to be sought in the only perfect and selfexisting Being - God. From this it follows that man is not an ontologically determined entity
but a being determined by the creative power of God. To be a finite being is to be open to
the power and love of God, who, without annulling or removing anything that he has given
can always, if he sees fit, give more.42 We are then beloved creatures of God who can
participate in him without loosing our individuality and humanity, and receiving from him
40 Polkinhorne: 1988. 76.
41 The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox within quantum theory indicates that when two
quanta have reacted with one another, they continue to have some influence on each other no
matter how far they eventually may be separated.
42 Mascall: 1971. 247-248.

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without ever exhausting him. In other words, the establishment of the Kingdom is not the end
but the beginning of a communion with the inexhaustible and never fully comprehensible
God.
This should encourage Christians to acknowledge that the Kingdom of God is already
established on the earth standing in utmost opposition to the evil kingdoms under the
dominion of Satan. Christ is the eschaton, or the divinely ordained climax of crisis of
history. It was as a gift of God and not on account of human effort. It was the manifest and
effective assertion of the divine sovereignty in conflict with evil in the world.43
When we consider the historical context of Revelation, we are able to see that the
mythological language of the cosmic war depicts the situation in the real world. The
application of the message of the Revelation has to do more with the earth than with heaven.
It is the hope of heaven, the coming kingdom of God, which gives strength to Christians to
continue their fight against evil while on earth. The Revelation is the message to all
generations of Christians to be assured that although it seems that each generation lives in a
period of the eclipse of God (Buber) and God's existence is far from self-evident,
remembering what God has done for us in the past gives us hope that he will bring the history
of creation to a glorious victory over the powers of darkness, sin and evil. In Jesus we have
exhibited the power by which God rules the world.44 If Jesus conquered the world (Jn.
16:33) the believers who are joined to him have done the same too.
The biblical imagery of a cosmic battle might be too abstract to appreciate its
significance for our daily life. Nevertheless, the Bible never loses sight of the cosmic battle
that has an impact on earth's affairs. The spiritual forces, which opposed Jesus ministry on
earth, exercised their attack through the socio-political structures in the Greco-Roman world.
The Kingdom of God that Jesus inaugurated is in contrast to that of the earthly governments
43Ibid. 65.
44 Koontz: 1989. 183.

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(Matt. 20:28 and parallels). We should identify with all victims of power as Jesus himself
identified with humanity by taking on himself human flesh.
But how are Christians to achieve that? The answer of the Eastern Church Fathers
points in the direction of self-denial. For example, such was Origen's the desire to see the
establishment of the Kingdom of God so that in one of his homilies he writes the following:45
If I, who seem to be your right hand and
am called Presbyter and seem to preach the Word of
God, If I do something against the discipline of the
Church and the Rule of the Gospel so that I become a
scandal to you, The Church, then may the whole
Church, in unanimous resolve, cut me, its right hand,
off, and throw me away.
Origens deepest yearning is to be identified or named as a Christian, as someone who
belongs to Christ. This is well indicated in another homily that ironically states Origens fear
to be identified as a heretic. Far from it, he states that he wants to be a man of the church, and
then explains:46
I do not want to be called by the name of some
founder of a heresy, but by the name of Christ, and to
bear that name which is blessed on the earth. It is my
desire, in deed as in spirit, both to be and to be called a
Christian.
What is Origen chiefly concerned is not his personal destiny, but rather the condition
of Christs church and the establishment of Gods kingdom. It seems the reward of the
Christian life for Origen is not so much what one can get for oneself by the acts of obedience
to God, but paradoxically that we are the reward that God gets for himself. From the two
quotations above it can be said that for Origen the pivotal importance of belonging to Christ
is Christs victory over death and sin through which he obtains the believers as his reward.
Salvation of the individual is significant only in the context of the redeemed people of God.
An Old Testament parallel can be drawn from Is. 40:1-11. In verse 10 it says, See, the
45 Jes. Nav. h.(GCS 94: 7.6; trans. Bruce 2009: 150).
46 Luc. h. Or. dom. (GCS 94: 16.6; trans. Lienhard 2009: 109).

19

Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his
recompense before him. Most contemporary commentators agree that the reward and the
recompense in this case refer to the people God has delivered. In Isaiahs vision of Yahwehs
victorious return to his city is not leading captives, but rather people who he has rescued from
captivity. Or as Klaus Baltzer says they are his wages, just as sheep were Jacobs wages.47
The people who are Yahwehs wages are the same to whom he gives the promise in Psalm
37:27 that they will dwell forever in the promised land if they turn away from evil and do
good. The promise can stand on its own as it reflects the importance of obedience to Gods
ordinances. However, verse 28 states explicitly what shall be the motivation for this
obedience. It is to be found in the Yahwehs love of justice. Or In other words, he shall live a
moral life to please God and not at all to secure thereby a tranquil life.48 Tranquil life is only
a corollary of this God-pleasing life.
Abrahams calling and the subsequent story is good example of this. First of all God
chooses a man who in the context of the given culture would have been the least likely
candidate for the task. Abraham does not seem to fit. Already uprooted from his original
home in Ur, he is now about to be uprooted from his closest family. In this way Abraham is
asked to leave behind the two most formative frameworks, a home country and an extended
family, pertaining to ones identity and security. The verbs of promise such as make,
bless, make great, be, bless, curse, find blessing depend on one verb that
Abraham receives as a commandment, go. It is thorough the going of Abraham that God
will trigger into motion his blessings, of which the highest one according to Lev. 26:11-12 is
that He walks among his people. Thus in this call to Abraham to go we already have Gods
incipient promise to walk with him. This promise of walking together reminds us of God's
original plan for humanity when he walked with the first people in the Garden of Eden. In
47 Baltzer: 2001.
48 Weiser: 1962. 321.

20

other words with Abraham, God was most distinctively reasserting his intention to continue
to build people for himself to which he offers identity, greatness, providential care and
mediatorship. According to Gordon Wenham what Abram is here promised was the hope of
many an oriental monarch (cf. 2 Sam 7:9; Ps 72:17).49
But the promise comes with a price. It is a call to give up all that for Abraham is a
source of comfort. In responding to this call he is to resolve himself to dereliction, abnegation
and wandering in total surrender to God. Brueggemanns commentary on the story of the
calling of Abraham observes that, Such renunciation, of course is exceedingly difficult to
speak of in our culture which focuses on self-indulgence because you owe yourself this. 50
However he is convinced that the same call is valid for our culture because it is not
about law or discipline, but promise
If with Abraham God begins the renewal of that personal relationship with the
humankind represented in his walking in their midst and Abraham is called to the life or
renunciation it seems that this renouncing act is already the reward, that is Gods full
promises will be accomplished one day, but his walking has started in the here and now.
If one takes into consideration the absence of an unequivocal promise for the life after
death as blessing for such obedient response of Abraham, and indeed the people of Israel as
described in the Pentateuch, the response itself, and the willingness remains an inspiring
reminder for what should be the motive of our surrender, and submission; namely the sheer
pleasure of living a life that is pleasing to God, and which is an abundant reward.

49 Wenham: 1987. 275

50 Brueggemann: 1982. 118.

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ABBREVIATIONS
Collections
CWS The Classics of Western Spirituality
FC
The Fathers of the Church
ECF
The Early Church Fathers
PPS
Popular Patristic Series
Works by Maximus the Confessor
Amb.
Ep.
LA
Or. dom.
Pyr.
Q. Thal.

Ambiguorum liber
Epistulae xlv
Liber asceticus
Expositio orationis dominicae
Disputatio cum Pyrrho
Quaestiones ad Thalassium

Works by Origen
Jes. Nav. h.
Luc. h.

Homiliae in Jesu Nave

Homiliae in Lucam

22

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Origen. Homiliae in Lucam. M. Rauer, ed. 1931. Die Griechischen Christlichen
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Lienhard.
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