Living above Gender: Insights from Saint Maximus the Confessor

Sometimes, one finds in the Maximian corpus passages that reprimand gender, womanhood, marriage, sexuality, and pleasure. Analyzing some relevant texts, mainly from his Ambigua, this article proposes that the Confessor did not dismiss gender-related themes. Drawing on Paul, Gregory of Nyssa, and his own experience of holiness, Maximus was concerned with the misuse of gender in humanity’s sinful condition, and with its virtuous restoration. He worked within a holistic, realistic, and spiritual framework, which led him to construe the spiritual lifestyle not as an abolishment of gender, marriage, and pleasure, but as a dispassionate and compassionate experience of human life.