Hitvalló Szt. Maximos kora
Maximus the Confession and his Age

Summary/Abstract: In this article the author tries to offer a synthetic view of what may be labelled as “Maximus’s age,” that is, approximately of the first two thirds of the seventh-century in Byzantium. Several different historical sources are first listed and analysed in order of their historical reliability with respect to Maximus’s life and work. In a second approach, their content is presented in order that a relatively full picture may be gained of the general historical, ecclesiastic and religious tendencies of this very troubled time, which, among many other things, saw the almost deadly Persian invasion into the Empire, and the rise of Islam. This vista is offered in view of two other studies to come, which shall deal with Maximus’s life story and the reconstruction of his vast oeuvre. In the present text it is argued that without this historical context, the determinative events in Maximus’s life cannot be understood, and that certain strands in his theology are also closely linked up with the difficult circumstances of the Church, just like his tragic fate.

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