Human Destiny and the Natural Law in St Maximus the Confessor: A Contribution to Orthodox Christian Humanism

Abstract Orthodox Christian theology in general prides itself on bearing the mantle of patristic thought. Orthodox theological anthropology is no different, often drawing on Greek patristic sources in presenting its vision of the human being. Yet Orthodox anthropology can also broadly be categorized as personalist in ways that are not necessarily so clear in patristic texts. The interest in the concept of the person or hypostasis has brought with it challenges and criticisms from those who see this interest as unsupported by the sources of the tradition. One repeated criticism points to the apparent tension or even conflict between the categories of person and nature in Orthodox Christian personalism. This article offers a close reading of Maximus the Confessor's understanding of natural law in relation to his understanding of human destiny as deification in order to offer a contribution to this debate. Maximus's interests in natural law with a negative valence, a positive valence, and as something transcended by deification are looked at in turn, as well as the relationship between them. The case is made that Maximus offers a powerful means of retrieving a Christocentric vision of the natural law (and nature more broadly) for Orthodox Christian humanism without undermining or threatening—and arguably even enhancing—the achievements of modern Orthodox personalism.