Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor

Maximus the Confessor, saint and martyr, is the theologian of synthesis: of Rome and Byzantium, of antiquity and the Middle Ages, reexcavating the great treasures of Christian tradition, which at that time had been buried by imperial and ecclesial censure. Von Balthasar was an authority on the Church Fathers--Irenaeus, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and above all, Maximus the Confessor. This masterpiece on Maximus broke new ground at that time. This is the first English translation of the latest edition of this acclaimed work. This book presents a powerful, attractive, religiously compelling portrait of the thought of a major Christian theologian who might, for this book, have remained only an obscure name in the handbooks of patrology. Here the history of theology has become itself a way of theological reflection.