The Ascetic Life, The Four Centuries on Charity #21

Publication Data: New York, NY/Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 1955
Format: hardcover
Number of Pages: viii + 284
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.2 cm × 14.6 cm × 2.5 cm
ISBN: 0‒8091‒0258‒7

   
St. Maximus the Confessor
Translated and Annotated by Polycarp Sherwood, O.S.B., S.T.D.

No. 21 of Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation

“THE ASCETIC LIFE[...]: [...]The development is simple and springs directly from the nature of Christian life, particularly as the monk seeks to achieve it. It is above all the quest of salvation, that is, the Lord’s purpose is His Incarnation. It i by making this purpose our own and by fulfilling the commandments that we shall be saved, deified. [...]THE FOUR CENTURIES ON CHARITY[...]: [...]The form is that of gnomic or sententious literature[...]. Both the number 100 and the number of the centuries are significant: the first as a perfect number referring directly to the One, God; the other, in our case 4, as representing the four Gospels, whose commandment is that of love. This latter point Maximus himself notes in his preface. He also gives the reason for the sententious form: concision, facilitating the work of memory, that the monk may have a store of pithy sayings on which he may ruminate and develop at leisure[...].”
—“Introduction”

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
   Prefatory
      I. Life
         Theological position at the outset
         Progress to and Establishment in Africa
         Relations with Imperial Governors
         Monothelite Controversy: the ‘Psephos’
         Monothelite Controversy: the ‘Ecthesis’
         Crisis: the Affair of Pyrrhus
         Roman Activity
         Arrest and Trials
      II. Doctrine
         a. God
            The Triune God
         b. Man
            God and the World
            The Constitution of the World and of Man
            The Composite Nature of Man
            Freedom
            Man—Adam
         c. Deification
            Agents of Deification: The Church
            The Sacraments
            Asceticism and its Technique
            Prayer and Contemplation
            Charity
            The Maximian Synthesis
      III. Special Introduction
         a. The Ascetic Life
         b. The Four Centuries on Charity
TEXT
      The Ascetic Life
      The Four Centuries on Charity: Prologue
         Century I
         Century II
         Century III
         Century IV
NOTES
      Bibliography
      Notes on the Introduction
         on The Ascetic Life
         on The Four Centuries on Charity
INDEX