Gymnastics of the mind

the theory of gymnos nous in Maximus the confessor

Miklós Vassányi

pp. 31-37

in: Enik Sepsi, Aniko Daróczi (eds), The immediacy of mystical experience in the European tradition, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

In this paper, I shall try to give a description of how St Maximus the Confessor (580–662), one of the most influential orthodox theologians of the early Byzantine mystical tradition, conceives of an immediate experience of God. My presentation and analysis will rely especially on the Confessor's early spiritual works: the Centuries on Love (Kεφάλαια περὶ ἀγάπης, Capita de charitate, before 626), the Ascetic Life (Λόγoς ἀσkητιkός, Liber asceticus, before 626) and the Exposition of the Lord's Prayer (Eἰς τὴν πρoσευχὴν τoῦ Πάτερ ἡμῶν ἑρμηνεία σύντoμoς, Orationis dominicae brevis expositio, 628–630), all of them written early in Maximus' early career, when he was a monk in his forties, first, probably, in the Jerusalem area, then—fleeing the Persian attack on the Byzantine Empire—in the Byzantine province of Africa.