Negraru Nicoleta: Ethical interpretation of προαίρεσις. Convergent and divergent positions between the interpretation of Aristotle, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor

This study is intended to follow the analysis of “human free will” (προαίρεσις) in Maximus’ Opuscula – a corpus of texts with a highly anthropologic content – and the transition of this term throughout the Monothelite argumentation. We will consider a double comparative analysis from the perspective of patristic exegesis. Following the Aristotelian interpretation of the meaning of the term in Ethica Nicomachica, the study points at the ethical distinction conceptualised by Maximus compared to Aristotle, along a temporal differentiation, and the emphasis he puts on the role of proairesis (προαίρεσις)in defining ethical identity as a correlative of deification. The second plan of interpretation is the analysis of the original definition of human free will, such as it appears in the Homilies on the Lord’s Prayer of Gregory of Nyssa, according to which free will is the image of God in the human being. Gregory of Nyssa underlined that one of the God’s greatest gifts is the freedom of the will and the intellect is the bearer of God’s image. Maximus follows on Gregory of Nyssa: “The image holds by the means of imitation the whole form of the original.” (Quaestiones ad Thalassium, 55,548 D). The positive meaning of this definition knows with Maximus an amplification which requires other ethical distinctions representing his contribution to the ethical ontology of freedom. On the sideline, the study will follow the historic and dogmatic circumstances of tehse ethical distinctions developed around proairesis(προαίρεσις)and their consequences to Maximian Christology.