The Mystagogy of St Maximos the Confessor
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), part 3

Class #3: 
The text for this series is "On the Ecclesiastical Mystagogy", by Jonathan J. Armstrong, SVS Press.
This class reviewed the introductory chapters (2)-(7),  based on St. Maximos' recollection of the teaching of the "Blessed Elder", prior to his discussion of the Liturgy proper: 
Chapter 2. How and in What Mode the Holy Church is the Image of the Universe, which Subsists in Visible and Invisible Realities;
Chapter 3. That The Holy Church of God Is The Image of The Sensible Realm Alone;
Chapter 4. How and in What Mode the Holy Church of God Symbolically Images a Human Being and, as a Human Being, is Imaged by a Human Being;
Chapter 5. How and in What Mode, again, the Holy Church of God is the Image and Representation also of the Soul When Considered on Its Own;
Chapter 6. How and in What Mode the Holy Scripture also Is Said to Be a Human Being;
Chapter 7. How the Universe is Called a Human Being and in What Mode a Human Being is Called the Universe. 
 
Topics discussed include:
1. On Spiritual progress: Moral discipline (obeying the commandments; despising the flesh so that it does not weigh down the soul), natural contemplation (perception by grace through the senses of the logoi of all creatures), and mystical theology (hesychia; communing with God in the silence, beyond all words, images and concepts); 
2. On St. Maximos' discussions of the human soul (contemplative part ~ mind ~ spiritual ~ wisdom ~ super-rational ~ nous ~ intuitive, and animate ~ practical ~ reason ~ will ~ prudence ~ understanding ~ faith: how each part works together in the God-directed life --- the noetic faculty always focussed on God through contemplation, directing the animate part, and the animate part choosing to do the will of God through obedience to God's providence in virtue);
3. On the Scriptures (On their interpretation; on the letter and the spirit: moving beyond a rational understanding to a noetic/spiritual engraving on the heart, through contemplation guided by the Spirit; Scripture is in essence Scripture when it is engraved in the mind/heart by Spiritual grace).

June 29, 2021
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