Torstein Tollefsen

St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662), was a major Byzantine thinker, a theologian and philosopher. He developed a philosophical theology in which the doctrine of God, creation, the cosmic order, and salvation is integrated in a unified conception of reality. Christ, the divine Logos, is the centre of the principles (the logoi ) according to which the cosmos is created, and in accordance with which it shall convert to its divine source. Torstein Tollefsen treats Maximus' thought from a philosophical point of view, and discusses similar thought patterns in pagan Neoplatonism. The study focuses on Maximus' doctrine of creation, in which he denies the possibility of eternal coexistence of uncreated divinity and created and limited being. Tollefsen shows that by the logoi God institutes an ordered cosmos in which separate entities of different species are ontologically interrelated, with man as the centre of the created world. The book also investigates Maximus' teaching of God's activities or energies, and shows how participation in these energies is conceived according to the divine principles of the logoi. An extensive discussion of the complex topic of participation is provided.

Filosofi betyr kjærlighet til visdom, og forfatterne presenterer en rekke filosofer som med ekte kjærlighet har søkt visdom og innsikt. Det er denne søken som har frembragt filosofiens historie. Tenkere og ideer viser sammenhengen i tenkningen før og nå. Den vektlegger særlig sider ved middelalderen som har vært lite fremhevet. Boka dekker pensum til examen philosophicum, og er anbefalt av Rådet for ex.phil.