On the Three Types of Righteousness

St. Maximus the Confessor ca. 580-662

Those who are wise in divine things say there are three kinds of righteousness: human, angelic and divine. And human [righteousness], they say, is both distributive equity and right judgment with regard to the perceptible things of this world; and [angelic] righteousness is the unstinted sharing of divine knowledge; and they define divine righteousness as suffering for the sake of sinners. (Various Questions and Selections from Various Passages that are Perplexing, Question 1:11)