John of Damascus
Greek monk at Mar Saba and the traditional last of the Greek Fathers. Author of the Fount of Knowledge (including Dialectica, On Heresies, and De Fide Orthodoxa) — the great synthesis of Greek patristic theology. Wrote three Orations Against Those Who Attack the Holy Images defending icons during the iconoclast controversy.
Why John matters
John of Damascus is the last Father — the figure who closes the patristic age. He worked at the court of a Muslim caliph, defended icons against the Byzantine emperor's iconoclasm, and wrote An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, the first comprehensive systematic theology in the Christian East. Aquinas's Summa is unthinkable without him. After John of Damascus, theology becomes scholastic — done in universities, with footnotes. Before him, it was done by bishops in cities, in argument with heretics. He's the door between two eras.
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Common questions
- Who was John of Damascus?
- John of Damascus (675–749) — Greek monk at Mar Saba and the traditional last of the Greek Fathers. Author of the Fount of Knowledge (including Dialectica, On Heresies, and De Fide Orthodoxa) — the great synthesis of Greek patristic theology. Wrote three Orations Against Those Who Attack the Holy Images defending icons during the iconoclast controversy.
- Who did John of Damascus oppose?
- Leo III the Isaurian.
Works
- An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faithc. 743
Third book of the Fount of Knowledge — the great systematic theology of the Christian East.
- Three Treatises on the Divine Imagesc. 730
Defense of icons during iconoclasm — set Eastern Christian aesthetics for a millennium.
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Sources for biography
- John of Damascus, Expositio Fidei (De Fide Orthodoxa) primary
- John of Damascus, Orationes de Imaginibus primary
- John of Damascus, De Haeresibus primary
documented connections(5)
- cited Maximus the ConfessorJohn of Damascus' Christology in De Fide Orthodoxa depends heavily on Maximus' formulations.John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa 3 · Louth, St John Damascene, Oxford 2002, ch. 6
- John quotes Pseudo-Dionysius extensively in De Fide Orthodoxa, especially in discussions of the divine names and apophatic theology.John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa 1.4, 1.12
- cited Basil of CaesareaJohn cites the Cappadocians (Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa) throughout the Fount of Knowledge.John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa, passim
- cited Gregory of NazianzusJohn drew especially on Gregory of Nazianzus' Theological Orations.John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa, passim
- opposed Leo III the IsaurianJohn composed the three Orations Against Those Who Attack the Holy Images in response to the iconoclast policy of Leo III, writing safely from outside the empire under Umayyad rule.John of Damascus, Orationes de Imaginibus 1-3
tradition connections(1)
- knew of (incoming) Andrew of CreteAndrew and John are roughly contemporary Damascene-trained hymnographers; later tradition links them but no direct contact is documented.Synaxarion Constantinopolitanum