The Whole Mystery of Christ

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This examination of Maximus Confessor’s theological vision focuses on Christ’s cosmic and historical Incarnation, significantly impacting patristic scholarship. Jordan Daniel Wood presents a comprehensive study of Maximus (560–662 CE), a profound thinker whose insights resonate with the theological depth of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Cosmic Liturgy while offering a corrective perspective. Central to Maximus's thought is his assertion that “the Word of God, very God, wills always and in all things to actualize the mystery of his Incarnation,” which the book seeks to explicate. Wood pays close attention to the various contexts influencing Maximus, including earlier church fathers, developments in Christological and Trinitarian doctrine, monastic practices, and contemporary philosophical traditions. The exploration covers the relationship between God’s act of creation and the Word’s historical Incarnation, the analogy of being and Christology, and the interplay of history and the Fall, alongside discussions of grace, deification, theological predication, and the ontology of nature versus personhood. Wood argues that Maximus uniquely conceives creatio ex nihilo as creatio ex Deo, revealing the mystery of Christ as the identity of the Word’s historical and cosmic Incarnation. This work will engage scholars and students in patristics, historical theology, systematic theology, and Byzantine studies.