Maximus therefore marks a signal advance in Christian metaphysical anthropology. He has really explained the essential unity of the human composite, without however recurring to the Aristotelian hylomorphic definition, which in the then common estimation was still too deeply stained with materialism for Christian use. And if he has made an advance, it is only in part that this is due to his philosophical acumen, that is, for the technical expression and defense of his doctrine. The doctrine itself