moral matters; several are on the Severian heresy, others supply biographical details. Many of his
letters exist in MS. only. (4) Hymns,^870 three in number.
Maximus was the pupil of Dionysius Areopagita, and the teacher of John of Damascus and
John Scotus Erigena, in the sense that he elucidated and developed the ideas of Dionysius, and in
turn was an inspiration and guide to the latter. John of Damascus has perpetuated his influence in
the Greek Church to the present day. Scotus Erigena introduced some of his works to Western
Europe. The prominent points of the theology of Maximus are these:^871 Sin is not a positive quality,
but an inborn defect in the creature. In Christ this defect is supplied, new life is imparted, and the
power to obey the will of God is given. The Incarnation is thus the Divine remedy for sin’s awful
consequences: the loss of free inclination to good, and the loss of immortality. Grace comes to man
in consequence of Christ’s work. It is not the divine nature in itself but in union with the human
nature which is the principle of atoning and saving grace. God is the fountain of all being and life,
the alpha and omega of creation. By means of the Incarnation he is the Head of the kingdom of
grace. Christ is fully Man, and not only fully God. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Opposed
to the Monophysites and Monothelites, Maximus exerts all his ingenuity to prove that the difference
of natures in Christ requires two wills, a human and a divine will, not separated or mixed, but in
harmony. Christ was born from eternity from the Father, and in time from the Virgin, who was the
veritable Mother of God. Christ’s will was a natural, human will, one of the energies of his human
nature. The parallel to this union of the divine and human in Christ is the human soul wrought upon
by the Holy Spirit. The divine life begins in faith, rules in love, and comes to its highest development
in the contemplative life. The Christian fulfils the command to pray without ceasing, by constantly
directing his mind to God in true piety and sincere aspiration. All rational essences shall ultimately
be re-united with God, and the final glorification of God will be by the complete destruction of all
evil.
An interesting point of a humane interest is his declaration that slavery is a dissolution,
introduced by sin, of the original unity of human nature, and a denial of the original dignity of man,
created after the image of God.
§ 144. John of Damascus.
Cf. §§ 89 and 103.
I. Joannes Damascenus: Opera omnia in Migne, Patrol. Gr. Tom. XCIV.-XCVI. (reprint, with
additions, of Lequien’s ed. Paris, 1712. 2 vols. fol. 2d ed. Venice, 1748).
II. John of Jerusalem: Vita Damasceni (Migne, XCIV. col. 429–489); the Prolegomena of Leo
Allatius (l.c. 118–192). Perrier: Jean Damascène, sa vie et ses écrits. Paris, 1862. F. H. J.
Grundlehner: Johannes Damascenus. Utrecht, 1876 (in Dutch). Joseph Langen (Old-Catholic
professor at Bonn): Johannes von Damaskus. Gotha, 1879. J. H. Lupton: St. John of Damascus.
London, 1882. Cf. Du Pin, V. 103–106; Ceillier, XII., 67–99; Schroeckh, XX., 222–230;
Neander, iii. passim; Felix Nève: Jean de D. et son influence en Orient sous les premiers khalifs,
in "Revue Belge et etrangère," July and August, 1861.
(^870) l.c. cols. 1417-1424, and this; vol., p. 409.
(^871) Cf. Neander and Bach in loco.