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“No one with an interest [in the seventh century] reading this book will regret the investment of time, or fail to come away with a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of events.”—Journal of Theological Studies
“The author has an amazing ability to discern the grand schemes of things; to notice the broad intersecting narratives, competing discourses, and paradigm shifts; and to detect the underlying rhetorical concerns of various utterances… This insightful book is highly recommended, especially for scholars of late antiquity and patristic studies.”—Reviews in Religion and Theology
List of contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Toward the Sacramental Saint
Ascetics and the Eucharist before Chalcedon
Cyril of Scythopolis and the Second Origenist Crisis
Mystics and Liturgists
Hagiography and the Eucharist after Chalcedon
2. Sophronius and the Miracles
Impresario of the Saints
Medicine and Miracle
Narratives of Redemption
The Miracles in Comparative Perspective
3. Moschus and the Meadow
The Fall of Jerusalem
Moschus from Alexandria to Rome
Ascetics and the City
Chalcedon and the Eucharist
4. Maximus and the Mystagogy
Maximus, Monk of Palestine
The Return of the Cross
The Mystagogy
5. The Making of the Monenergist Crisis
The Origins of Monenergism
The Heraclian Unions
Sophronius the Dissident
6. Jerusalem and Rome at the Dawn of the Caliphate
Sophronius the Patriarch
Jerusalem from Roman to Islamic Rule
The Year of the Four Emperors
From Operations to Wills
Maximus and the Popes
7. Rebellion and Retribution
Maximus from Africa to Rome
The Roman-Palestinian Alliance
Rebellion and Trial
Maximus in Exile
Conclusion
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Index
About the author
Phil Booth is A. G. Leventis Associate Professor in Eastern Christianity at the University of Oxford.
Summary
Ancient World | Ancient History
This book focuses on the attempts of three ascetics—John Moschus, Sophronius of Jerusalem, and Maximus Confessor—to determine the Church’s power and place during a period of profound crisis, as the eastern Roman empire suffered serious reversals in the face of Persian and then Islamic expansion. Situated within the broader religious currents of the fourth to seventh centuries, this book shines new light on the nature of not only the holy man in late antiquity but also the Byzantine orthodoxy that would emerge in the Middle Ages and remains central to the churches of Greece and Eastern Europe.
