Four Hundred Texts on Love (Fourth Century) 36
Posted: June 21st, 2011 | Author: Scott | Filed under: St. Maximos the Confessor | Tags: love, passions, st. maximos, worship | Comments Off on Four Hundred Texts on Love (Fourth Century) 3675. When the senses have the intellect in their clutches, they propagate polytheism through each individual sense organ; because in their slavery to the passions they pay divine honors to the sensible objects corresponding to each organ.
St. Maximos carries it a step further here and names our slavery to our senses and the passions they engender as the root of polytheism. I find that intriguing and, in truth, can see some of the truth in that insight in my experience of present-day polytheism. And sometimes, I suspect, a person’s polytheism might be less overt. At one point does devotion or slavery tip over into the next best thing to worship? It’s a question worth pondering.