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JOHN OF DAMASCUS (JOHANNES DAMASCENUS...

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 449 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN OF See also:DAMASCUS (JOHANNES DAMASCENUS) (d. before 754) , an eminent theologian of the Eastern See also:Church, derives his surname from Damascus, where he was See also:born about the See also:close of the 7th See also:century. His Arabic name was Mansur (the See also:victor), and he received the epithet Chrysorrhoas (See also:gold-pouring) on See also:account of his eloquence. The See also:principal account of his See also:life is contained in a narrative of the loth century, much of which is obviously legendary. His See also:father See also:Sergius was a See also:Christian, but notwithstanding held a high See also:office under the Saracen See also:caliph, in which he was succeeded by his son. John is said to have owed his See also:education in See also:philosophy, See also:mathematics and See also:theology to an See also:Italian See also:monk named See also:Cosmas, whom Sergius had redeemed from a See also:band of See also:captive slaves. About the See also:year 730 he wrote several See also:treatises in See also:defence of See also:image-See also:worship, which the See also:emperor, See also:Leo the Isaurian, was making strenuous efforts to suppress. Various pieces of See also:evidence go to show that it was shortly after this date that he resolved to forsake the See also:world, divided his See also:fortune among his See also:friends and the poor, and betook himself to the monastery of St See also:Sabas, near See also:Jerusalem, where he spent the See also:rest of his life. After the customary See also:probation he was ordained See also:priest by the See also:patriarch of Jerusalem. In his last years he travelled through See also:Syria contending against the See also:iconoclasts, and in the same cause he visited See also:Constantinople at the imminent See also:risk of his life during the reign of See also:Constantine Copronymus. With him the "mysteries," the entire See also:ritual, are an integral See also:part of the Orthodox See also:system, and all See also:dogma culminates in image-worship. The date of his See also:death is uncertain; it is probably about 752. John Damascenus is a See also:saint both in the See also:Greek and in the Latin Churches, his festival being observed in the former on the 29th of See also:November and on the 4th of See also:December, and in the latter on the 6th of May.

The See also:

work's of Damascenus give him a foremost See also:place among the theologians of the See also:early Eastern Church, and, according to See also:Dorner, he " remains in later times the highest authority in the theological literature of the Greeks." This is not because he is an See also:original thinker but because he compiled into systematic See also:form the scattered teaching of his theological predecessors. Several treatises attributed to him are probably See also:spurious, but his undoubted See also:works are numerous and embrace a wide range. The•most important contains three parts under the See also:general See also:title ll yr} yvteswr (" The See also:Fountain of Knowledge "). The first part, entitled KecaXaca,iXorocuic & IS an exposition and application of theology of See also:Aristotle's See also:Dialectic. The second, entitled II€pl alpiaewv ("Of Heresies"), is a See also:reproduction of the earlier work of See also:Epiphanius, with a continuation giving an account of the heresies that arose e after the See also:time of that writer. The third part, entitled 'EKSoacr lLKpl fliS 1'1)S 6p9oSoEov Triremes (" An Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith "), is much the most important, containing as it does a See also:complete system of theology founded on the teaching of the fathers and church See also:councils, from the 4th to the 7th century. It thus embodies the finished result of the theological thought of the early Greek Church. Through a Latin See also:translation made by See also:Burgundio of See also:Pisa in the 12th century, it was well known to See also:Peter Lombard and See also:Aquinas, and in this way it influenced the scholastic theology of the See also:West. Another well-known work is the Sacra parallela, a collection of biblical passages followed by illustrations See also:drawn from other scriptural See also:sources and from the fathers. There is much merit in his See also:hymns and " canons " one of the latter is very See also:familiar as the hymn " The See also:Day of Resurrection, See also:Earth tell it out abroad." John of Damascus has sometimes been called the " Father of See also:Scholasticism," and the " Lombard of the Greeks," but these epithets are appropriate only in a limited sense. The Christological position of John may be summed up in the following description:' " He tries to secure the unity of the two G. P.

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Fisher, Hist. of Chr. See also:Doctrine, 159 seq. More fully in R. L. Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation, ii. 138-146. natures by relegating to the divine See also:Logos the formative and See also:control-See also:ling agency. It is not a human individual that the Logos assumes, nor is it humanity, or human nature in general. It is rather a potential human individual, a nature not yet See also:developed into a See also:person or See also:hypostasis. The hypostasis through which this takes place is the See also:personal Logos through whose See also:union with this potential See also:man, in the womb of See also:Mary, the potential man acquires a See also:concrete reality, an individual existence. He has, therefore, no hypostasis of himself but only in and through the Logos. It is denied that he is non-hypostatic (G.vunrooraros) ; it is affirmed that he is en-hypostatic (h't nrboraros).

Two natures may form a unity, as the See also:

body and soul in man. So man, both soul and body, is brought into unity with the Logos; there being then one hypostasis for both natures." There is an interchange of the divine and human attributes, a communication of the former which deifies the receptive and passive human nature. In See also:Christ the human will has become the See also:organ of the divine will. Thus while John is an adherent of See also:Chalcedon and a dyothelite, the See also:drift of his teaching is in the monophysite direction. " The Chalcedonian See also:Definition is victorious, but See also:Apollinaris is not overcome "; what John gives with the one See also:hand he takes away with the other. On the question of the See also:Atonement he regards the death of Christ as a See also:sacrifice offered to See also:God and not a See also:ransom paid to the See also:devil.

End of Article: JOHN OF DAMASCUS (JOHANNES DAMASCENUS) (d. before 754)

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