Hans Urs von Balthasar Maximus the Confessor saint and martyr is the theologian of synthesis of Rome and Byzantium of antiquity and the Middle Ages reexcavating the great treasures of Christian tradition which at that time had been buried by imperial and ecclesial censure Von Balthasar was an authority on the Church Fathers Irenaeus Origen Gregory of Nyssa Augustine and above all Maximus the Confessor This masterpiece on Maximus broke new ground at that time This is the first English translation of the latest edition of this acclaimed work This book presents a powerful attractive religiously compelling portrait of the thought of a major Christian theologian who might for this book have remained only an obscure name in the handbooks of petrology Here the history of theology has become itself a way of theological reflection The spirituality of Maximus is pithily summarized in what is probably the most profound scholarly book ever written about Maximus Cosmic Litu