RT Article
T1 Maximus the Confessor's ‘Aeon’ as a Distinct Mode of Temporality
JF Heythrop journal
VO 63
IS 4
SP 780
OP 795
A1 Mitralexis, Sotiris
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2022
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1811869491
AB In this paper, I shall focus on the semantic content of αἰὼν in Maximus the Confessor's works, particularly in the instances in which he employs it as a distinct form of temporality, i.e. not as simply meaning ‘eternity’. I focus on αἰὼν as a Maximian terminus technicus in spite of the diverse meanings that he himself ascribes to the word in certain cases. I will also engage with the status of time as humanity's slavery, as humanity's enemy in Maximus’ thought, for this is integrally connected with the notion of the Aeon and especially with the need to transcend both time as χρóνος and temporality in the form of the Aeon in striving for ever well-being. The greater context of this investigation is the understanding of Maximus’ conception of temporality as a threefold one, consisting of (a) time as χρóνος, the temporality of the sensible realm and the numbering of motion, (b) αἰὼν i.e. the Aeon, a ‘time without movement’ and the temporality of the intelligible creation, and (c) the transformed temporality of the ever-moving repose (στάσις ἀεικἰ νητος).
DO 10.1111/heyj.12319