Makohon A. Transformation of Antique Philosophical Paradigms in the Eschatology of Maximus the Confessor

This thesis investigates the eschatology of a Byzantine philosopher and theologian Maximus the Confessor in regards to the possible extent of it being influenced by Hellenic philosophical teachings and ideas of other Christian writers. The paper identifies major directions in which Hellenic philosophical paradigms are transformed into the Holy Father’s eschatological views where he established Christian eschatology in the philosophical language not limiting it to the factor of faith only. The paper traces the logic of overcoming antique paradigms in the field of eschatology, specifically fatalism, cyclism, eternity of the world, necessity to create the world, metempsychosis, apocatastasis, specific theory of evil, etc. The thesis brings out major philosophical concepts where Maximus the Confessor provides a philosophical argumentation for Christian eschatology, more specifically independence of the Incarnation of Logos from the inner world metamorphoses, absolute freedom and imperturbation of the world creation and the associated concept of deification, the metaphysical dominance of aims over the inception of being, the negation of the cyclic theory of cosmos, the specific view on the problem of apocatastasis (restoration of all), the ever-moving repose of deified beings, the dominance of the freedom of will over the freedom of choice, the absence of gnomic will in an eschatological state, and the specific theory of evil as the accusation of the other.