8 Maximus the Confessor
8.1 Introduction
It has become apparent in the course of twentieth-century scholarship that the work of Maximus the Confessor represents not merely a compilation but an original synthesis of the various theological, ascetic, and philosophical traditions in which he himself was nurtured. His is an outstanding example of that creative affirmation that lies at the heart of any truly living tradition. From this perspective it has become possible to approach the analysis of his sources not as an exercise in anatomy, but as an attempt to understand the living sinew of his thought or, to put it another way, the inner dynamic of his thinking. 1
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