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The Whole Mystery of Christ: Creation as Incarnation in Maximus Confessor
A thoroughgoing examination of Maximus Confessor’s singular theological vision through the prism of Christ’s cosmic and historical Incarnation. Jordan Daniel Wood changes the trajectory of patristic scholarship with this comprehensive historical and systematic study of one of the most creative and profound thinkers of the patristic Maximus Confessor (560–662 CE). Wood's panoramic vantage on Maximus’s thought emulates the theological depth of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Cosmic Liturgy while also serving as a corrective to that classic text. Maximus's theological vision may be summed up in his enigmatic assertion that “the Word of God, very God, wills always and in all things to actualize the mystery of his Incarnation.” The Whole Mystery of Christ sets out to explicate this claim. Attentive to the various contexts in which Maximus thought and wrote―including the wisdom of earlier church fathers, conciliar developments in Christological and Trinitarian doctrine, monastic and ascetic ways of life, and prominent contemporary philosophical traditions―the book explores the relations between God’s act of creation and the Word’s historical Incarnation, between the analogy of being and Christology, and between history and the Fall, in addition to treating such topics as grace, deification, theological predication, and the ontology of nature versus personhood. Perhaps uniquely among Christian thinkers, Wood argues, Maximus envisions creatio ex nihilo as creatio ex Deo in the event of the Word’s the mystery of Christ is the revealed identity of the Word’s historical and cosmic Incarnation. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of patristics, historical theology, systematic theology, and Byzantine studies.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published October 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 30, 2022
As promised, the full review:
https://jesusandtheancientpaths.com/2...
Of the PhD theses I have read, this is one of the top five. If its assumptions are correct, reality is something of a timeloop whereby we — by grace — choose our perfect timeline until we are truly and fully who we are made to be, really real, and very ourselves.
It's a wild time if you can understand it all.
https://jesusandtheancientpaths.com/2...
Of the PhD theses I have read, this is one of the top five. If its assumptions are correct, reality is something of a timeloop whereby we — by grace — choose our perfect timeline until we are truly and fully who we are made to be, really real, and very ourselves.
It's a wild time if you can understand it all.
November 14, 2022
This is a difficult book to read, but is well worth the effort. The basic premise is that Maximus the Confessor means what he says. ("The Word of God, very God, wills that the mystery of his Incarnation be actualized always and in all things.") Unfortunately, many interpreters try to explain away the more difficult or problematic passages and make Maximus say what they hope he really meant.
Maximus the Confessor is already not an easy writer to read. Understanding Maximus means understanding Greek philosopy (Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus) plus ancient Christian writers such as Origen, et al. It also helps to be well-schooled in Christian theology as well as philosophy in general. I would recommend non-academics begin with the Analytic Appendix of Key Concepts, as it helps not only to know something about the terminology employed, but exactly how Maximus intended them to be used. Once you have a grasp of the basic terminology, you will be in a better place to understand the core themes of the book.
Maximus the Confessor is already not an easy writer to read. Understanding Maximus means understanding Greek philosopy (Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus) plus ancient Christian writers such as Origen, et al. It also helps to be well-schooled in Christian theology as well as philosophy in general. I would recommend non-academics begin with the Analytic Appendix of Key Concepts, as it helps not only to know something about the terminology employed, but exactly how Maximus intended them to be used. Once you have a grasp of the basic terminology, you will be in a better place to understand the core themes of the book.
August 9, 2025
I feel like I would understand this better if I were steeped in the late antique philosophical world and, like, knew Greek. I still don’t really understand what it means for Christ to unite his hypostasis to all creatures. What is a God-cat? What is a God-pencil? How do they exist in perichoresis with God? What does that actually look like?
But despite coming away with tons of unanswered questions, I found the book engaging and sort of mind-blowing and want to keep thinking about this God-world identity stuff.
But despite coming away with tons of unanswered questions, I found the book engaging and sort of mind-blowing and want to keep thinking about this God-world identity stuff.
July 21, 2025
This book is very well crafted. It's logical and orderly; also, it's not outlandishly polemical. Most importantly, it's a very interesting thesis. Nevertheless, it's an unconvincing thesis based on only a tiny amount of raw material from Maximos. A lot more is speculative.
I stumbled upon a youtube interview of Wood that convinced me to pick up the book. Since then the YT algorithm has blasted me with more interviews of Wood, some of which I watched and was very turned off by. Somewhere—and I forget exactly where on YT—he admits that his thesis is a round-about rationalization for making Maximos fit into the box of Orthodox universalism.
It may or may not be true that Maximos was a universalist, but this certainly isn't the book to prove that kind of claim, although it comes across as the go-to-source for future apologists seeking such things. In hind sight, it reasons more like a book for David Bentley Hart apologists instead of Maximos students (let the reader understand).
I'm giving this book three stars because it's well crafted but unconvincing.
I stumbled upon a youtube interview of Wood that convinced me to pick up the book. Since then the YT algorithm has blasted me with more interviews of Wood, some of which I watched and was very turned off by. Somewhere—and I forget exactly where on YT—he admits that his thesis is a round-about rationalization for making Maximos fit into the box of Orthodox universalism.
It may or may not be true that Maximos was a universalist, but this certainly isn't the book to prove that kind of claim, although it comes across as the go-to-source for future apologists seeking such things. In hind sight, it reasons more like a book for David Bentley Hart apologists instead of Maximos students (let the reader understand).
I'm giving this book three stars because it's well crafted but unconvincing.
August 19, 2024
A superlative work of historical theology!
September 9, 2025
In patristic studies, much scholarship in recent years has been done to respond to and perhaps refute the Hellenization thesis of early Christian theology. In the case of this book, I think we see a bit of a new phenomenon: the Hegel-enization of early Christian theology—specifically, in this case, Maximus the Confessor. Maximus is a Father near and dear to me as I am doing my dissertation on him, and this is now the second dissertation I have read on Maximus, but it was honestly hard to tell throughout where Maximus’s voice ended and Wood’s Hegelian, idealistic, and universalist voice began. Not to mention the writing style. My goodness is the writing style unnecessarily pithy and needlessly complicated. As if the content wasn’t already dense enough. Wood writes in a style and makes certain word choices that make many sentences throughout come off as near gibberish. I had to read other reviews on this book just to understand what was going on at some points—to get the big picture—but I was able to follow along well enough. Reading reviews, I learned that this book is certainly polarizing. Some think this is the greatest contribution to Maximus studies since Balthasar’s book. The back cover of this book even goes so far to say that Wood’s work “changes the trajectory of patristic scholarship.” I doubt it. That seems like an extreme and overselling marketing tool. The only reason why I give this two stars instead of one star is because, as Jonathan Bieler points out in his critical review of the book, Wood does highlight many key themes in Maximus’s theology as Wood seeks to interpret Ambiguum 7.22 in a literal manner, and so make a nuanced argument for the God-world relation as Wood argues that Maximus believes that the Word hypostatically (not essentially) identifies with the world: “Word becomes world.” There are also many thought-provoking and provocative claims about Maximus view of time, place, and creation in here that will fuel my dissertation writing. All in all, I do walk away from this boom with a more comprehensive understanding of Maximus’s theological vision, as well as the close relation between Maximus’s Christology and cosmology. You just have to sort through the bones to get to the meat.
C. S. Lewis once remarked that reading and prioritizing primary sources is a lot more simple than quickly going to the secondary literature, since the secondary literature is often harder to read and muddies the waters a bit (I am paraphrasing). That is certainly true here. I feel like just going back to Maximus and reading him in his own words will be a much simpler task.
A standout quote from the book: The logic of creation is the logic of Incarnation. The Logos, Jesus Christ, is the truth of both. As Eriugena perceived with great clarity, only this Maximian insight accounts for the riddle of the world's being. That riddle runs thus. If creation proceeds from God alone—lest the "nothing" whence creation comes prove a "something" alongside God-creation is simultaneously identical to and different from God. Here one tends to invoke "participation" to name and perhaps explain this paradox. But the problem is that the dynamics of participation simply assume the very positivity that creation from nothing means to valorize permanently— the positivity of the participants, of the created subjects) as such. The mystery of creation ex nihilo is that a world proceeds from God as what differs infinitely from God, and yet what proceeds bears such absolute ontologi: cal stability that, even in its final return to God, this world will not cease to differ essentially and infinitely from the same God whither it has returned.
C. S. Lewis once remarked that reading and prioritizing primary sources is a lot more simple than quickly going to the secondary literature, since the secondary literature is often harder to read and muddies the waters a bit (I am paraphrasing). That is certainly true here. I feel like just going back to Maximus and reading him in his own words will be a much simpler task.
A standout quote from the book: The logic of creation is the logic of Incarnation. The Logos, Jesus Christ, is the truth of both. As Eriugena perceived with great clarity, only this Maximian insight accounts for the riddle of the world's being. That riddle runs thus. If creation proceeds from God alone—lest the "nothing" whence creation comes prove a "something" alongside God-creation is simultaneously identical to and different from God. Here one tends to invoke "participation" to name and perhaps explain this paradox. But the problem is that the dynamics of participation simply assume the very positivity that creation from nothing means to valorize permanently— the positivity of the participants, of the created subjects) as such. The mystery of creation ex nihilo is that a world proceeds from God as what differs infinitely from God, and yet what proceeds bears such absolute ontologi: cal stability that, even in its final return to God, this world will not cease to differ essentially and infinitely from the same God whither it has returned.
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August 8, 2025Wonderful insights and exposition of Maximus the Confessor. He took his statements literally that that the world was created out of nothing, so everything and each individual person consists of nothing and an image of God (the perfection of each thing and person as its natural law). Christ as Logos implants this image as a logoi at creation and opens the way to perfection of the logoi through His assumption of human nature, life, death, and resurrection. As God (uncreated) he can assume all of creation and each individual person (the created) fully without change or admixture in the a perichoresis, the Stoc mixture of the wholes. We freely choose to pursue our nothingness or perfection through our free choice creating our own individual person or hypostasis, also out of nothing. Maximus takes the Nicene Creed's understanding to its logical and consistent conclusion defining how God became man, so we may become gods. A brilliant study that does need a bit of background in Plato, Middle Platonism or Neo-Platonism, but he is careful to define terms and ideas, and give several examples from different Platonist, so you have probably read one of them.
March 11, 2023
A comprehensive and insightful look into the theology of Maximus Confessor, one of the great Eastern Christian theologians, and one that is predicated on the idea that Maximus meant what he said, in contrast with the manner in which later theologians applied a priori qualifications to his thought. The book offers an engaging introduction to his thought and provides deep analysis of his major works. Wood's writing style is accessible, allowing readers to gain a better understanding of this complex thinker. His exploration into how creation participates in God's incarnation, and indeed is the incarnation, is especially fascinating. This book serves as an excellent resource for those seeking to learn more about Maximus' ideas or deepen their knowledge. Highly recommended!
December 29, 2022
Wood gives a helpful understanding of Maximus’s teaching and emphasizes how the incarnation of Christ is evident in creation. This is a helpful and important study on Maximus as it provides insight into how others perceived the roles of the beginning and end in light of the incarnation in the middle. Wood is an accessible writer who invites readers into his argument, and defends it well.
November 20, 2022
Amazing. Dense, so it will take some time for someone like me, but nonetheless amazing.
June 5, 2023
I’ll do a full review on my blog: but this book is amazing, theologically nuanced, and it’s conclusion is profound! For sure a top five theology book
May 29, 2024
Fantastic book. Will need to read again.
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November 16, 2025The book's thesis is insane on every level, but at least it's interesting... which is more than you can say for 99% of Maximus scholarship.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews