Category: John of Damascus
Let’s discuss John of Damascus!
John of Damascus
I am a evangelical Christian who lives in a literate society in a post-Johannes Gutenberg world. We don’t learn as much from pictures and symbols as we do from books. In some Christian traditions like Orthodoxy and Catholicism icons remain very important, but I have never been part of these traditions. In fact, as a youth I was a Pentecostal which is very much a “Spirit” branch of Christianity. There were no paintings of saints in our sanctuary. At best, we had a stained glass window. I don’t know that we were iconoclast, but we didn’t have any room for praying to saints or honoring icons in our understanding of our religion.
Over the years I’ve tried to rethink this, but I remain closer to where I was back then than I do to Christians who find value in icons or even see icons as essential aspects of worship.
One figure who did not receive much attention in our Greek Fathers class at Western Seminary was John of Damascus. This is because he was the final person and you know how things go, schedules are always a bit behind. I suspect few of us were exceptionally excited about him since he seems to have made few unique contributions that evangelicals would find valuable. He developed liturgy a bit, he expounded on received orthodoxy and defended it, but his biggest contribution was a defense of icons.
I confess: I didn’t give much time to understanding him. What am I missing by ignoring John of Damascus? What is it that I should know about icons?
__________
See my other posts wherein I prepare for my Th.M. oral defense:
If you’d like to discuss Origen of Alexandria and Irenaeus of Lyons, go here.
If you’d like to discuss Athanasius of Alexandria, go here.
If you’d like to discuss Basil the Great, go here.
If you’d like to discuss Gregory of Nazianzus, go here.
If you’d like to discuss Gregory of Nyssa, go here.
If you’d like to discuss John Chrysostom, go here.
If you’d like to discuss Cyril of Alexandria, go here.
If you’d like to discuss Maximus the Confessor, go here.
Greek Fathers Annotated Bibliography
As previously mentioned I was in a class on the Greek Fathers this spring. Each student had to contribute to an annotated bibliography made for the class. Well, it is finished and available here.
Papers on the Greek Fathers
Over at Scienta et Sapientia several papers written by my classmates for our class on the Greek Father have been (or soon will be) posted. If you enjoy patristics, especially Greek patristics, you should see if anything seems interesting. Thus far the list includes a paper on John of Damascus and iconoclasm (here), the image of Irenaeus [1] in recent scholarship (here), Gregory Nazianzen’s understanding of Trinitarian relationship (here), and my aforementioned introduction to Athanasius’ Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit (here). There should be another half-dozen or so coming down the pipe.
_____________
[1] Yes, Irenaeus was not technically a “Greek Father” but we studied him because along with Origen he was highly influential on their theology.
Who Is Your Favorite Greek Father?
Council of Nicaea
I am almost done with a class I have been taking on the Greek Fathers with Dr. Marc Cortez. It has been a facinating theological journey. I have come to greatly respect these men for their contributions to Christianity. The individuals we studied include the following: Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Maximus the Confessor, and John of Damascus. For those who are familiar with any of this theologians who would you say is your favorite?
