Three Treatises on the Divine Images (Popular Patristics Series)

by John of Damascus

Publisher:

St Vladimir’s Seminary Press

, 2003

Overview

Is all Christian art fundamentally blasphemous? That was the question posed aggressively by the Christian iconoclasts of the eighth century in a bitter controversy. The resounding answer ‘No’ from John of Damascus helped to secure the future of art in the service of Christ. Without his brilliant defense, both profound and at times earthy, we might well have had no icons, murals, and mosaics in churches to elevate and enrich our spirits. This fresh and complete translation, by a distinguished patristic scholar, of John’s three treatises on the divine images shows us the issue at stake both then and now. Professor Louth places all of us who care about them in his debt.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Of old, God the incorporeal and formless was never depicted, but now that God has been seen in the flesh and has associated with human kind, I depict what I have seen of God. I do not venerate matter, I venerate the fashioner of matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked my salvation, and I will not cease from reverencing matter, through which my salvation was worked.” (Page 29)

“The Son is a living, natural and undeviating image of the Father, bearing in himself the whole Father, equal to him in every respect, differing only in being caused.” (Page 25)

“For the nature of the flesh did not become divinity, but as the Word became flesh immutably, remaining what it was, so also the flesh became the Word without losing what it was, being rather made equal to the Word hypostatically. Therefore I am emboldened to depict the invisible God, not as invisible, but as he became visible for our sake, by participation in flesh and blood. I do not depict the invisible divinity, but I depict God made visible in the flesh.” (Page 22)

“The fourth kind [of veneration] is that whereby the images seen by the prophets were worshipped and also the images of things to come (for it was through a vision of images that they saw God), as Aaron’s rod¹³² was an image of the mystery of the Virgin, and also the jar¹³³ and the table;¹³⁴ and when Jacob bowed in veneration over the head of his staff,¹³⁵ it was a figure of the Savior.” (Page 109)

“You see that the single purpose of this is that one should not worship, or offer the veneration of worship, to creation instead of the Creator, but only to the One who fashioned all.” (Page 23)

Product Details

• Title: Three Treatises on the Divine Images
• Author: John of Damascus
• Edition: First Edition
• Series: Popular Patristics Series
• Publisher: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press
• Print Publication Date: 2003
• Logos Release Date: 2018
• Era: era:byzantine
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Icons › Cult; Iconoclasm
• ISBNs: 0881412457, 9780881412451
• Resource ID: LLS:THRTRTSSJHDMSCS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T21:01:49Z

About John of Damascus

Saint John of Damascus (c. 676 – 4 December 749) was a Syrian Christian monk and priest. Born and raised in Damascus, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem. A polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law, theology, philosophy, and music, before being ordained, he served as a Chief Administrator to the Muslim caliph of Damascus, wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed hymns which are still in everyday use in Eastern Christian monasteries throughout the world. The Catholic Church regards him as a Doctor of the Church, often referred to as the Doctor of the Assumption due to his writings on the Assumption of Mary.

Born: c. 676 AD, DamascusDied: December 4, 749, Mar Saba, JerusalemVenerated in: Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Lutheran Church, Anglican Communion, Canonized Pre-CongregationFeast: December 4, March 27)