1. Know Your Faith IV: The Fathers of the Church Lesson 8: St Maximus the Confessor Defender of the Faith Against Heresy 1

2. St Maximus the Confessor 580-662 Ardent Defender of Orthodoxy Pious in His Monasticism Fought Against Monotheletism Tortured for His Faith Constantinople in the Time of St Maximus 2

3. Constantinople in the 7 Th Century St Justinian the GreatThe Great Church of Hagia Sophia 3

4. 4 Attacks On the Byzantine Empire: Islam and Montheletism

5. 5

6. Flight to Africa, Maintaining Orthodoxy 6

7. 7 The Relationship of the Church and the State

8. 8 Like I said, “That which is not assumed cannot be redeemed.”

9. 9 Heretical Patriarchs of the Mid 7 th Century Orthodox and Faithful Patriarchs of the Mid 7 th Century

10. 10 Oriental Orthodox Churches Differing in Terminology, But Not in Faith The Coptic Orthodox Church of AlexandriaCoptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch (sometimes called 'Jacobite')Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, a branch and integral part of the Syriac Orthodox Church with the Oriental Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch as its supreme head. Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church The Church of Armenia (sometimes called the Armenian Apostolic Church)Church of Armenia The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (sometimes called the Indian Orthodox Church)Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church The Ethiopian Orthodox ChurchEthiopian Orthodox Church The Eritrean Orthodox ChurchEritrean Orthodox Church

11. 11 St Pope Martin of Rome And Confessor Born in Tuscany, Italy Pope: 649-655 “Even if they cripple me, I will not have relations with the Church of Constantinople while it remains in its evil doctrines.”

12. 12 The Writings of St Maximus the Confessor Quaestiones ad Thalassium (Questions to Thalassius)—65 questions and answers on difficult passages of Holy Scripture Ambigua—an exegetical work on St. Gregory the Theologian (329-390). Paraphrases of the works of Dionysius the Areopagite (though this may be the work of John of Scythopolis, who wrote in the first half of the 6th century, some 100 years before Maximus) Several dogmatic treatises against the Monothelites Liber Asceticus (Book on Asceticism) Capita de Caritate Mystagogia—a mystical interpretation of the Divine Liturgy

13. 13 The Spiritual Legacy of St Maximus

14. 14 The Spiritual Legacy of St Maximus Discussion 1.Why does it matter that Jesus Christ took on a human will, in addition to the Divine will? 2.What does it mean to be a Confessor, and how should this challenge our daily Christian lives? 3.What is the role of secular society and the decrees of governments in the life of the Church? If we must live in a society such as ours, where do we draw the line of governmental interference, or where do we open the gates for the synergy of the church and the state? 4.Should the Church ever allow something from outside of itself to determine the teachings of the Church? Does the answer change if we recall that the Church is the Body of Christ (because then the question would look like this: Should the body of Christ ever allow something from outside of itself to determine the its witness of itself?) 5.What are some steps, mundane or momentous, that put us on the path of salvation and urge us to theosis? 6.What other writings, whether St Maximus or not, are edifying in your spiritual struggles within the Orthodox Christian tradition?