A Modern Interpretation of the Human Will of the Incarnate Son of God in Saint Maximus Confessor and the Earlier Fathers

A Modern Interpretation of the Human Will of the Incarnate Son of God in Saint Maximus Confessor and the Earlier Fathers

23 May 2025

The profound theology of Saint Maxim the Confessor has attracted numerous the theological studies in the modern period, starting in the West with the work of the famous Catholic theologian Urs von Balthasar “Cosmic Liturgy”, continuing with the work of Policarp Sherwood, J. M. Garigues and in the East Vladimir Lossky, George Florovsky and Dumitru Stăniloae. The present study analyses the theological understanding of the problem of wills in Christ in Saint Maximus, but also in the previous Eastern Fathers, in the work of the theologian François-Marie Léthel, showing that his interpretation is far from understanding the problem of the wills of Christ in Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and Saint Maximus the Confessor, reaching the point of confusing the deified human will of Christ with His divine will.