The Opuscula and the Dispute with Pyrrhus : The Theological and Polemical Works

Maximus the Confessor (d. 662), regarded by certain of his contemporaries as a sword of division, has become a bridge between East and West in our time. He lived at a time of theological and political upheaval, coming under intense scrutiny from imperial authorities in the final decades of his life. His conflict with Constantinople led him to engage in a theological and polemical campaign to equip his associates around the Mediterranean to respond to certain innovative doctrines. Maximus saw these new teachings as disconnected from the thought of the approved Fathers and theologically linked with prior heresies.

This volume contains significant theological and polemical works— The Small Theological and Polemical Works, also known as the Opuscula, and the Dispute with Pyrrhus—refuting monenergism and monotheletism, the notions that Christ had only one activity or only one will. The Small Theological and Polemical Works are offered here for the first time in a complete English translation, built upon critical scholarship from the past century with key additions from Sergey Epifanovich included. Regarded as the most iconic work associated with Maximus, the famed Dispute with Pyrrhus, the deposed Patriarch of Constantinople, took place in Carthage in July 645. The record of this dialogue reflects Maximus’s mature Christology, while it is also a noteworthy prelude to his journey to Rome, where he worked with Pope Martin at the 649 Lateran Synod, uniting their voices and sealing their fates.