Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor: Exegesis of the Human Heart by Andrew J. Summerson (review)

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• Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor: Exegesis of the Human Heart by Andrew J. Summerson
• Kevin M. Clarke

Andrew J. Summerson Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor: Exegesis of the Human Heart The Bible in Ancient Christianity 15 Leiden: Brill, 2021 Pp. xi + 147. $106.00.

Andrew J. Summerson meets Maximus on his own monastic and ascetical terms in his lucid monograph, Divine Scripture and Human Emotion in Maximus the Confessor: Exegesis of the Human Heart, treating exegesis and detachment in the Quaestiones ad Thalassium (hereafter, Qu. Thal.). Summerson offers the "first part of a larger project to read and interpret Maximus's principle works" (3). The brief book, which Summerson says owes much of its development to the guidance of his Augustinianum professor John Rist, is a significant contribution toward understanding Maximus's approach to exegesis and the ways in which his monastic context colors his approach to scripture. In many ways, the book is just as much about Maximus's approach to ἀπάθεια as it is to exegesis.

Concerning the structure of the book, the table of contents provides a useful map to navigate the material, and Summerson opens each chapter with a clearly worded abstract. The back matter features nineteen pages of bibliographic entries and a modest index. Summerson employs a consistent method throughout. The chapters feature vibrant conversations between Maximus and his philosophical influences and patristic sources. Divine Scripture and Human Emotion thus will also interest scholars of Clement, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Evagrius.

After the Introduction, Summerson divides his book into five chapters. Chapter One situates Maximus as a monk, providing a rather different picture of Maximus from that of Phil Booth, whom Summerson rightly criticizes as misrepresenting Maximus as a protesting dissenter, a move which obscures Maximus's theological pedigree in Summerson's view (7–9). More importantly, this chapter nullifies the dichotomy between monastic life and exegesis. Summerson is careful not to cast Maximus's ascetic claims as predominantly Stoic; rather, Summerson shows that Maximus's doctrine of εὐπάθεια goes beyond what one finds in the Stoics and continues the departure begun in Clement and Origen.

Chapter Two makes the case for the "thematic unity" of the Qu. Thal., making connections between the ascetic life, the contemplation of creation, and exegesis in Maximus. This chapter showcases Summerson's rhetorical skill interacting with Maximus. There are many clever turns of phrase. Summerson identifies Christ the "snake-charmer" while also evincing an appreciation for Maximus's own self-deprecatory tropos, as Maximus portrays himself as slithering in the passions (47–52). The antivenom metaphor serves well to illustrate how the wise physician, Christ, cures the passions with their own poisons through his passion.

Chapter Three approaches the passion of fear, looking at fear in the fathers mentioned above, showing how in Maximus fear leads from its earthly penitential form to a form of eternal wonder. Maximus is eager to present fear in its positive light, as the fear of the Lord is a gift and Christ's own fear in the garden indicates that "fear has a place in Christ's perfected human nature" (77).

Chapter Four situates Maximus's understanding of grief with a view toward the same theological predecessors, and it explores a "godly grief" in Maximus [End Page 579] that has a view toward its eschatological horizon. Summerson walks through the challenges of distilling an account of grief among the fathers. He addresses the apparent tension between Macrina's and her brother's approaches to grief, which Gregory is at a loss to resolve (84–85), but in Evagrius, though one finds grief as a capital vice, there is more of a turn toward its good employment in repentance. For Maximus, grief follows closely upon pleasure as a consequence of the fall. Inasmuch as pleasure produces bodily grief, grief can lead to redemptive suffering and joy (95). Further, grief enables the Christian to enter into the suffering of others, which is a share in the divine life (101).

Chapter Five considers God's love for humanity in Christ and what Summerson calls "eschatological apatheia" in the elect. Here, Summerson zeroes in on the erotic exchange...