Reviewed Book: Maximus, of Turin, Saint. The Sermons of St Maximus of Turin. New York: Newman Press, 1989

Riegert, Eduard R.

English

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The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turin

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ConsensusVolume 18Issue 2 Word and Worship: Essays on Preaching andLiturgyArticle 1311-1-1992The Sermons of St. Maximus of TurinEduard R. RiegertFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationRiegert, Eduard R. (1992) "The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turin," Consensus: Vol. 18 : Iss. 2 , Article 13.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol18/iss2/13Book Reviews 127The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turintrans. and annotated by Boniface Ramsey, O.P.Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of The Fathers in Trans-lationed. by Walter J. Burghardt and Thomas Comerford Lawler,No. 50New York, NY/Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 1989xii + 388 pagesIn E.C. Dargan’s two-volume A History of Preaching Maximus, bishopof Turin, receives a bare paragraph; his homilies “are not of much intrin-sic interest or values, but as samples from the times they are instructive.”While not untrue, that is a somewhat jaundiced judgment, as this collec-tion of his homilies makes evident. Students of Patristics and students ofthe history of preaching are grateful for this excellent translation and itshandsome presentation.Very little is known of Maximus. Partly a contemporary of Ambrose(340- 397)—from whom he borrowed much sermonic material—we knowonly that he was bishop of Turin in northwest Italy and died somewherebetween 408 and 423. From sermonic references a few other biographicalhints emerge, and suggest that his ministry in Turin began about 390 andended with his death.While the editor represents the sparse biographical information fairly,he might have served the reader well with even a brief sketch of the times.For one thing, Rome was sacked in August 410 by Alaric and his Goths;there was a broad sense of foreboding building prior to this disaster and ahuge wave of fear following it—not least in northern Italy where “barbar-ians” too were a menace (cf., for example, Robert B. Eno, S.S., “ChristianReaction to the Barbarian Invasions and the Sermons of Quodvultdeus”,Preaching in the Patristic Age, ed. David G. Hunter, New York/Mahwah:Pauhst Press, 1989, ch. 8). Maximus refers to these alarms in Sermons18, 72, 82, 83, and 85. Secondly, paganism was still a strong influence andheresies were cause for careful instruction. Maximus rebukes pagan prac-tices in Sermons 30 (the famous sermon “On the Eclipse of the Moon”),63, 98, 105-108; it is suspected he refers to Arianism in such sermons as 6,26, and 56, and to Docetism in Sermon 22. Thirdly, the liturgical year andliturgies were established but still fluid. Maximus is preoccupied with fasts(especially those of the Quadragesima, the 40 days); Ascension and Pente-cost seem to be celebrated on the same day in Turin (Sermon 40); SaintsDays are of great concern to him. A rough count reveals 19 sermons onSaints Days, 23 on dominical festivals, and 15 on Fast Days and Almsgiv-ing. While the Notes to the sermons alert the reader to these dimensions,even summaries would put the homilies into their several contexts.Apart from this omission, the editorial work is excellent. The foremostproblem is to identify the authentic homilies, given Maximus’ heavy use128 Consensusof Ambrose in particular. Of 117 sermons 13 are placed in an appendix;while attributed to Maximus, six of the 13 are judged to be spurious, fivedoubtful, one is Jerome’s, and one Basil of Caesarea’s. In addition to102 pages of Notes to the sermons, three indexes are supplied: biblicalreferences, authors and soiurces, and a general topical index. An excellent,though brief. Introduction describes Maximus’ homiletical style and intent.Maximus emerges as a sturdy preacher, deeply committed to his largelyrural parishioners, and very faithful to his pastoral responsibilities. The ser-mons often have a fragmentary quality (some, in fact, are clearly fragments)in that while they begin recognizably, they end abruptly. Still, there is strik-ing continuity in his habit of continuing a sermon or theme by reviewing theprevious sermon (e.g., “A few days ago, brethren, we spoke against thosewho think that the moon can be escorted from the heavens with magicians’incantations... ”, Sermon 31, a sequel to Sermon 30, the “Eclipse of theMoon”). These sequels occur very frequently (e.g., 19-20, 26-28, 37-39A,92-94, 95-96). Though partly thematic in method (e.g.. Saints Days; thegrace of Baptism, Sermon 13; almsgiving. Sermon 22A; on removing idolsand pagan rites. Sermon 107), Maximus almost invariably practices the an-cient homily method of commentary upon verses of Scripture according toa typological and allegorical hermeneutic. On the one hand, the contem-porary reader can be impressed not only by the power of his images, butespecially by the illuminating effect of the metaphors produced by allegory.Allegory, after all, is a discipline of metaphor-making! Paul’s epistles arethe breasts of the church (no. 9); Christ is a grape cluster (no. 10); hereticsare owls: they love the dark and hate the light (no. 73); the woman at thewell is the church (no. 22A). On the other hand, the contemporary readerwill gasp at bizarre metaphors achieved from indiscriminate linking of texts:the stone that killed Goliath is Christ because Christ is “the stone whichthe builders rejected”; since “the head of a man is Christ” (1 Corinthians11:3) the Baptist’s severed head is Christ and thus the church, while hisheadless body is the Jews (no. 88)1Maximus’ aim as a preacher is so to teach and exhort that his hearerswill increase in holiness, i.e., increase in virtue and good works. “I laborto convert you to good works” (no. 30); he supposes he too can become“a preacher of the Lord’s virtues” (no. 78). Virtues, he says, “are wingsto us, which raise us up from the low places of the earth to the heights ofheaven, and by a kind of flight of the mind, snatch us from the darkness ofthe nether world and lead us to the pleasures of paradise” (no. 70). Faith isone of the chief virtues (cf. nos. 102-103); fasting is one of the chief meansof nurturing virtues. The monastic model is thus a very strong influence(cf. no. 49), and martyrdom the ideal (cf. no. 4).As is the case generally in Patristic writings, Maximus is both anti-semitic and anti-feminist. “We ought to avoid, though, the companionshipnot only of the pagans but also of the Jews, with whom even a conversationis a great contamination” (no. 63); of the two men in one bed (Luke 17:34),the one taken is the Christian people, the one left is the Jewish people (no.Book Reviews 12919); of the two boats on the seashore (Luke 5) the boat Jesus enters (whichis Simon’s) is the “faithful Church” while the boat he spurns is “the faithlessSynagogue” (no. 49). His anti-feminism is, in contemporary ears, brutal:“It is in the desert [the reference is to Jesus’ temptation which Maximusparallels with Adam’s temptation], then, that salvation is first restoredto humankind—there where there are no rich foods, where there are nopleasures, where (what is the cause of every evil) there is also no woman.For Adam would have been able to remain unshaken among those pleasuresof paradise had Eve not been in the same place with her diabolical snares.The desert, then, is fitting for salvation—there where there is no Eve topersuade, no woman to entice. Behold a remarkable thing: in paradise thedevil contends with Adam, and in the desert the devil struggles with Christ;everywhere he lays a snare for man, everywhere he accosts him, but wherehe has found a woman he conquers, and where he has not found a womanhe retires conquered” (no. 50A).Maximus exudes a wonderful naive joy in the Scriptures. All sorts ofdiscoveries are to be made there, and often these appear as he applies thedevice of comparison (e.g., Mary’s womb and the tomb). With a kind ofglee he notes that John the Baptist, as an OT figure, is born of an oldwoman while Jesus is born “from a woman in the flower of glowing youth”(no. 5); he marvels that what Gabriel closed (Zechariah’s mouth) babyJohn unlocked (no. 6); he appreciates the appropriateness of Peter, who isthe foundation of the church, healing a man’s crippled feet (no. 9).Beyond everything else Maximus is a pastor who loves his people. Hechides them as a father ( “I have no small complaint against a great numberof you, brethren”, (no. 63); he grieves over their lack of devotion (“I havediscovered, brethren, that during my absence so few of you came to church,so very few of you were present... ”, (no. 79); he warns them of enemies(“I think that all the heretics... are to be compared to foxes. Since theyare unable to dwell in the house of the Lord, they set up conventicles forthemselves, so to speak, like dark holes”, (no. 41); he jollies them along(“We ought to exult, dearest brethren, because feasts follow upon feasts andjoys are piled upon joys”, (no. 101); he yearns for their growth and bindsthem into the church which washed them (“Beloved brethren. . . because it isclear. . . that Jesus Christ was not baptized for His own sake but for ours, weought to take up the grace of His baptism in all haste and draw the blessingof consecration from the river Jordan, which He blessed, so that our sinsmight be drowned in the water in which His holiness was submerged”,(no.13). Gratifyingly, his times become parallels to our times, and we maylearn from him about preaching to a church which is again an island in asea of secularity and variant spirituality.Eduard R. RiegertWaterloo Lutheran Seminary

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