Re-interpreting Tradition: Maximus the Confessor on Creation in Ambigua ad Ioannem

Abstract

Maximus the Confessor’s Ambigua ad Ioannem represents a composition of 66 elucidations on ambiguous passages from the works of Gregory Nazianzen. The collection was written between 628 and 630 and dedicated to a certain John, whose identity is still under scholarly scrutiny. Although Ambigua, as a collection of various scholia, is mainly an exegetical work it may be to some extent subsumed under the popular Byzantine literary genre of erotapokriseis or question-and-answer literature, since the recipient of the work had selected different passages from Gregory and asked Maximus to ponder over their meaning. One of Maximus’ intentions in writing this work is the dismissal of Gregory’s alleged Origenistic or heterodox leaning (as in Ambiguum 7) and the justification of Gregory’s virtual infallibility and of his designation the ‘Theologian’ (as in Ambiguum 21). Moreover, Maximus displays his immense capacity to synthesize divergent theological traditions and to present them as parts of one coherent theological system.