St. John of Damascus

Born in 675 to a respected statesman, John followed in his father’s footsteps and came to hold a prominent position within the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate that was in power throughout his life. Eventually, his convictions led him to resign his career and enter the monastery at the age of 41. As a young man, John received tutelage in astronomy, music, and theology according to Latin scholarship. His education bore fruit in these fields, but John wrote the most of all in regard to theology. Prior to John, the Church had faced years of controversy over the nature of the Godhead and the person of Christ. However, throughout the Muslim invasions, John took up the task of synthesizing what the Church had already confessed through its early years. He distilled these teachings into his writing, The Fountain of Knowledge.

There was, however, one particularly notable controversy during John of Damascus’s time, and that was the iconoclastic controversy, which raged on for over 100 years. One of the first players in this controversy was Leo III, who outlawed the use of images within the Church on the grounds that revering images broke the Second Commandment. On the other side, John and the opponents of the iconoclasts maintained a theological clarity regarding the use of images within Christianity: they said that such depictions are acceptable to make and actually honor God, who was made manifest in the Incarnation. While there was certainly a tangle of political reasons behind each side’s convictions, through St. John of Damascus the Church had an opportunity to sharpen her understanding of the use of images and their proper role in the lives of Christians.

Brief History

As stated above, John of Damascus is widely appreciated by the universal Church for his synthesis of the fathers’ teachings, his hymn compositions, and his support of Christian art during the iconoclastic controversy. In each of these realms, the Lutheran Church finds John to be a saint worth remembering and commemorating. His commemoration falls on December 4th.

First, St. John of Damascus wrote one of the first systematic theological works. John is often regarded as unoriginal but is rather hailed for relying on the works of previous Church fathers to guide his thought. He synthesized the teachings of the orthodox Church in a new way in his work The Fount of Knowledge, utilizing a method that the reformers in general and Philip Melanchthon in particular would employ. The Lutherans used a structure remeniscent of The Fount of Knowledge when writing what are now called the Lutheran Confessions, and Melanchthon wrote the famous Loci communes, which is organized into topics or “loci” (places) of similar ideas such as sin, grace, free will.

As for the use of religious art and icons in churches and homes, Lutherans continue to uphold the orthodox defense that images of God are appropriate for use—while they are not to worship, they can be useful in directing our worship toward him, whom they portray! Lutherans especially leaned on the work and reasoning of St. John of Damascus when the Reformation brought about its own iconoclasts in more radical sixteenth-century movements. Against such iconoclasts, the Lutherans insisted on the propriety of images of Christ in light of the Incarnation, giving us yet another reason to give thanks for the work of St. John!

Collect

Lessons

Resources

References:
1. Weedon, William. Celebrating the Saints. Concordia Publishing House. 2016.
2. Latourette, Kenneth S., A History of Christianity, Harper & Brothers. 1953.

Images:
1. John of Damascus, Francesco Bartolozzi after Domenichino, Italy, 1762.
2. John of Damascus, Michael Anagnostou Chomatzas, 1734.
3. Argument about icons from Skylitzis Chronicle, 13th century.