Chapter XIb

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

The text describes the soul's 'bonds' and 'calamities' associated with generation, implying the material realm hinders spiritual liberation.

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

Evils are described as adhering to the soul through generation and being solutions to its bonds, aligning with the view of evil as a lack rather than positive existence.

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The text emphasizes liberation from bonds and a solution to evils associated with generation, implying a return to a purer state.

The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.

The mention of 'remedies' implies a cleansing or purification process for the soul from material evils.

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

The text describes a solution and liberation from bonds that occurs through the introduction of specific mystical remedies.

The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.

Liberation from bonds implies a transformation of the human condition toward a divine state.