In his Byzantine Gospel, Aidan Nichols reviews, as his subtitle states, “Maximus the Confessor in Modern Scholarship.” He begins by dealing with background and refers first to J. M. Hussey’sThe Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire to ask “When did Byzanium begin?” (p. 1). Hussey argues for the 7th century. Nichols lists as her first argument that the massive victories on the part of the Islamic armies occurred then. Suddenly the Eastern Empire was smaller and faced a major military foe.
I don’t know if Hussey is right or wrong, but this strikes me as a hugely negative way of stating what is the essence of Byzantium. It would be like identifying a period in one’s life with one’s chemotherapy. No matter how important the chemo was to keeping you alive, such a time period could only be one of decline. No matter how essential the events, they give us no health or progress but simply stave off death. I hope there is something better to be said for Byzantium. I much prefer Hussey’s second reason, the conversion of the slavs. This, at least, gives us a hopeful sign of growth and life.
There is something to this postulation. Eastern theology hits its zenith in John of Damascus (living under Islamic rule) and the seventh council, all of which occurs before the close of the eighth century. It does seem that much of orthodox thinking and practice has a certain level of “escapism.” They lived through dark times on the diminishing frontier of the Christian world.