TY - JOUR AB - This paper locates in the philosophy of Maximus the Confessor a remarkable concern for the temporality, finitude, and historicity of the human soul, that at once anticipates Heidegger’s “fundamental ontology,” but which is also capable of overcoming the limitations of philosophical nihilism. In taking up Heidegger’s claim that the recovery of ontology (and philosophy itself) depends upon the understanding of Being always in relation to its self-revelation in the finite and historical reality of human existence, it becomes clear that contemporary philosophical expression requires a “turning away” from the conceptual unity of finite beings and eternal Being, and a movement toward a radically subjective negativity. In contrast to his Neoplatonic forebears, Maximus presents a mode of thinking which is capable of surpassing Heideggerian negation, not through a denial of human particularity or finitude, but rather through a transformation of the very categories of Being and non-being themselves through his understanding of divine personhood. For Maximus such personhood is conceived of as transcending both Being and time, and yet without any loss of transcendence comes also to partake fully of both through the mystery of the Incarnation. According to Maximus, this radical event of be-coming forever transfigures the sphere of beings, bringing the historical into the transcendent, non-Being into Being, and death into life. AU - Pappas, Jack Louis DO - 10.5840/forphil201520213 KW - apophaticism; fundamental ontology; Heidegger, Martin; theological anthropology M1 - 2 M3 - Article N1 - von Balthasar, Hans Urs. Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor. Translated by Brian E. Daley. A Communio Book. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003. Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. New York: Harper, 1962. Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe. Vol. 1–97. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1975–2015. Heidegger, Martinj. Identity and Difference. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. Heidegger, Martin. Sein und Zeit. 11th ed. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1967. Maximus the Confessor. Ambigua ad Iohannem. Edited and translated by Nicholas P. Constas. In Difficulties, 1: 62–450; 2: 2–330. Maximus the Confessor. Ambigua ad Thomam. Edited and translated by Nicholas P. Constas. In Difficulties, 1: 2–58. Maximus the Confessor. On Difficulties in the Church Fathers. Edited and translated by Nicholas P. Constas. Vol. 1: Ambigua to Thomas; Ambigua to John 1–22; vol. 2: Ambigua to John, 23–71. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 28–29. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2014. Richardson, William J. Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought. Phaenomenologica 13. 3rd ed. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1974. Yannaras, Christos. On the Absence and Unknowability of God: Heidegger and the Areopagite. Translated by Haralambos Ventis. London; New York: T & T Clark, 2005. Zizioulas, John. Communion and Otherness: Further Studies in Personhood and the Church. Edited by Paul McPartlan. London; New York: T & T Clark, 2006. PY - 2015 SN - 1426-1898 (paper) 2353-7043 (online) SP - 125–137 ST - Otherwise than Identity, or Beyond Difference. Maximus the Confessor and the Hypostatic-Transfigurement of Fundamental Ontology T2 - Forum Philosophicum TI - Otherwise than Identity, or Beyond Difference. Maximus the Confessor and the Hypostatic-Transfigurement of Fundamental Ontology VL - 20 ID - 231 ER -