The universe, therefore, in being a product of the will is, according to St Maximus, not static. It is dynamic, but not in the Neoplatonic sense of an emanation from the higher to the lower state of being, which is a movement from “above” to “below.” It is a movement toward an end, “the will’s forward thrust.” St Maximus expresses this in the most eloquent way in his famous response to question 60 of Thalassius: The eschatological recapitulation of all in Christ is “the great hidden mystery … the blessed end for which everything has been constituted … [and the end] for the sake of which
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