TY - JOUR AB - This paper demonstrates the ontological status of virtue as an instance of love within the cosmology of St. Maximus the Confessor. It shows that we may posit the real existence of a “virtue” in so far as we understand it to have its basis in, and to be an instance of love. Since God is love and the virtues are logoi, it becomes possible and beneficial to parallel the relationship between love and the virtues with Maximus’ exposition of the Logos and the logoi. In particular, Vladimir Cvetković’s interpretation of the circle and radii analogy will be utilized. It will be shown that when one practices a virtue, one is practicing and participating in love, and, by extension, partaking in God. Within the context of Maximus’ cosmology, this means that practicing virtue and love is the ultimate purpose of humanity in its journey to gather all creation to communion with God. This paper is primarily an exposition of primary sources from St. Maximus, but discussion of the ontology of virtue is made with a view to bringing it into dialogue with modern theories of virtue ethics. This paper arises in part as a response to the August 2013 papers by Andrew Louth and Paul M. Blowers on the need for increased scholarship on Maximus and virtue ethics. AU - Brown, Dewhurst Emma DO - 10.5840/forphil201520215 KW - Chalcedonian definition; logoi theology; love; Maximus the Confessor; participation; virtue; virtue ethics M1 - 2 M3 - Article N1 - Acta conciliorum œcumenicorum. Edited by Eduard Schwartz, Johannes Straub, Rudolf Schieffer, Rudolf Riedinger, et al. Tomes I–IV [Series Prima] & Series Secunda I–III. Berlin: Verein wissenschaftliche Verlag / Berlin; Leipzig; New York: de Gruyter, 1914–2013. 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. Blowers, Paul Marion. “Aligning and Reorienting the Passible Self: Maximus the Confessor’s Virtue Ethics.” Studies in Christian Ethics 26, no. 3 (2013): 333–50. “Chalcedonian Definition.” Translated by Paul Parvis. Unpublished manuscript. Cvetković, Vladimir. “Predeterminations and Providence in Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor.” In Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy, edited by Filip Ivanović, 135–56. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011. Darwall, Stephen. “Introduction.” In Virtue Ethics, edited by Stephen Darwall, 1–4. Blackwell Readings in Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Gregory of Nyssa. De vita Mosis [Life of Moses]. Edited by Jean Daniélou. In La vie de Moïse ou Traité de la perfection en matière de vertu, 3rd rev. ed.: 44–326. Sources Chrétiennes. Paris: Cerf, 1968. Gregory of Nyssa. The Life of Moses. Translated by Abraham J. Malherbe and Everett Ferguson. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York; Ramsey: Paulist Press, 1978. Louth, Andrew. Maximus the Confessor. The Early Church Fathers. London; New York: Routledge, 1996. Louth, Andrew. “Virtue Ethics: St. Maximos the Confessor and Thomas Aquinas Compared.” Studies in Christian Ethics 26, no. 3 (2013): 351–63. MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue. 2nd ed. London: Duckworth, 1981. Maximus the Confessor. Ambigua ad Iohannem. Edited and translated by Nicholas P. Constas. In On Difficulties in the Church Fathers, Vol. 1: Ambigua to Thomas; Ambigua to John 1–22; vol. 2: Ambigua to John, 23–71: 1: 62–450; 2: 2–330. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 28–29. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2014. Maximus the Confessor. Capita theologica et oeconomica [Gnostic Chapters]. Edited by François Combefis. PG90: 1084A–173A. Maximus the Confessor. Disputatio cum Pyrrho [Dispute with Pyrrhus]. Edited by François Combefis. PG91: 288A–353B. Maximus the Confessor. Epistula ii [Epistle 2, To John the Chamberlain]. Edited by François Combefis. PG91: 392D–408C. Maximus the Confessor. La Mistagogia ed altri scritti. Edited and translated by Raffaelle Cantarella. Testi cristiani con versione italiana. Florence: Libraria Edititrice Fiorentina, 1931. Maximus the Confessor. Liber asceticus [On the Ascetical Life]. In Maximi Confessoris Liber asceticus, edited by Peter Van Deun and Steven Gysens: 4–123. Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca 40. Turnhout: Brepols; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000. Maximus the Confessor. Mystagogia. In Maximi Confessoris Mystagogia: una cum latina interpretatione Anastasii bibliothecarii, edited by Christian Boudignon: 3–74. Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca 69. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011. Maximus the Confessor. On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St. Maximus the Confessor. Translated by Paul Marion Blowers and Robert L. Wilken. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003. Maximus the Confessor. Orationis dominicae expositio [On the Our Father]. In Maximi Confessoris Opuscula exegetica duo, edited by Peter Van Deun: 27–73. Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca 23. Turnhout: Brepols; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1991. Maximus the Confessor. Selected Writings. Translated by George C. Berthold. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Irénée-Henri Dalmais. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York; Mahwah; Toronto: Paulist Press, 1985. Maximus the Confessor, Thalassius, and Theodore Raïthu. Maximi Confessoris Opera Omnia, Tomus secundus, Thalassi Abatis, Theodori Raithuensis Opera. Edited by François Combefis, Franz Oehler, and André Galland. Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Graeca 91, edited by Jacques-Paul Migne. Paris: Migne, 1863. Papanikolaou, Aristotle. “Learning How to Love: Saint Maximus on Virtue.” In Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection: Proceedings of the Symposium on St. Maximus the Confessor, Belgrade, October 18–21, 2012, edited by Maksim Vasiljević [Bishop Maxim], 239–50. Alhambra, CA: Sebastian Press & Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, 2013. Sherwood, Polycarp. The Earlier Ambigua of Saint Maximus the Confessor and His Refutation of Origenism. Studia Anselmiana, philosophica theologica. Rome: “Orbis Catholicus”/Herder, 1955. Thunberg, Lars. Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor. 2nd ed. Chicago: Open Court, 1995. Tollefsen, Torstein. The Christocentric Cosmology of St. Maximus the Confessor. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Törönen, Melchisedec. Union and Distinction in the Thought of St. Maximus the Confessor. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. PY - 2015 SN - 1426-1898 (paper) 2353-7043 (online) SP - 157–169 ST - The Ontology of Virtue as Participation in Divine Love in the Works of St. Maximus the Confessor T2 - Forum Philosophicum TI - The Ontology of Virtue as Participation in Divine Love in the Works of St. Maximus the Confessor VL - 20 ID - 233 ER -