The Movement of Agape in Maximus the Confessor

Abstract

The article explores Maximus the Confessor’s view on love as a natural movement towards God, transformed eschatologically into participation in Trinitarian love. Maximus distinguishes between movements “according to nature,” drawing creatures closer to God, and “contrary to nature,” leading them away. He critiques Origen’s association of movement with the fall, proposing a return to God culminating in ontological stability through deification. This process is characterized by an “ever-moving repose,” where divinized souls eternally move towards God without the risk of falling anew from union with God.