Eastern Christian Supply—Saint John of Damascus: Writings

Saint John of Damascus: Writings

Translated by Frederic H. Chase, Jr.

Volume 37 of The Fathers of the Church: A New Translation

“The Fount of Knowledge[...]is one of the last works of John of Damascus and surely his greatest. [...]First there is a short introduction to the entire work addressed to Cosmas of Maiuma. Then follows the philosophical introduction, entitled Philosophical Chapters; the historical introduction, called On Heresies in Epitome; finally, the main part of the work, of which the full title is An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. [...]In the Philosophical Chapters, or Dialectica, we have the first example of a manual of philosophy especially composed as an aid to the study of theology. [...]The full title of the second part of the Fount of Knowledge is Heresies in Epitome: How They Began and Whence They Drew Their Origin. [...]The most important and best known part of the Fount of Knowledge is the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith[..., which...]is[...]not a compilation, but a synthesis, of Greek theology. It is a statement in very clear language of the teaching of the Greek Fathers in its most developed form.”
—“Introduction”

CONTENTS

   INTRODUCTION
   THE FOUNT OF KNOWLEDGE
   Preface
   The Philosophical Chapters
      1 On Knowledge
      2 What the Purpose of This Work Is
      3 On Philosophy
      4 On Being, Substance, and Accident
      5 On Terms
      6 On Division
      7 On That Which Is by Nature Prior
      8 On Definition
      9 On Genus
      10 On Species
      11 On Individual
      12 On Difference
      13 On Accident
      14 On Property
      15 On Predicates
      16 On Univocal and Equivocal Predication
      17 On the Predication of the Essence of a Thing and on That of Its Sort
      18 What the Five Terms Have in Common and in What They Differ
      19 What Genus and Difference Have in Common and in What They Differ
      20 What Genus and Species Have in Common and in What They Differ
      21 What Genus and Property Have in Common and in What They Differ
      22 What Genus and Accident Have in Common and in What They Differ
      23 What Difference and Species Have in Common and in What They Differ
      24 What Difference and Property Have in Common and in What They Differ
      25 What Difference and Accident Have in Common and in What They Differ
      26 What Species and Property Have in Common and in What They Differ
      27 What Species and Accident Have in Common and in What They Differ
      28 What Property and Inseparable Accident Have in Common and in What They Differ
      29 On Hypostasis, Enhypostaton, and Anhypostaton
      30 On Substance, Nature, and Form; as Well as on Individual, Person, and Hypostasis
      31 On Equivocals
      32 On Univocals
      33 On Multinominals
      34 On Things Which Are Different and on Heteronymus Things
      35 On Conjugates
      36 On the Ten Most General Genera
      37 On Things Which are Generically the Same and Specifically the Same; and on Things Which Are Generically Different, Specifically Different and Numerically Different
      38 On Being in Something
      39 Again on Substance
      40 On Nature
      41 On Form
      42 On Hypostasis
      43 On Person
      44 On Enhypostaton
      45 On Anhypostaton
      46 The Division of Being
      47 The Division of Substance
      48 Again on Things Which Are Generically the Same and Specifically the Same; and on Things Which Are Generically Different and Specifically; and on Things Which Are Hypostatically the Same and Things Which Are Numerically Different
      49 On Quantum and Quality
      50 On Relatives
      51 On ‘Being of Such a Sort’ and Quality
      52 On Action and Passion
      53 On Position
      54 On Place
      55 On Time
      56 On Having, or State
      57 On Opposites
      58 On Habit and Privation
      59 On Prior and Posterior
      60 On the Simultaneous
      61 On Motion
      62 On Having
      63 On Statement, Negation, and Affirmation
      64 On Term, Premise, and Syllogism
      65 Various Definitions
      66 Further on the Hypostatic Union
      67 Six Definitions of Philosophy
      68 On the Four Dialectical Methods
         Explanation of Expressions
   ON HERESIES
      1 Barbarism
      2 Scythism
      3 Hellenism
      4 Judaism
      5 The Pythagoreans, or Peripatetics
      6 The Platonists
      7 The Stoics
      8 The Epicureans
      9 Samaritanism
      10 The Gorthenes
      11 The Sebyaeans
      12 The Essenes
      13 The Dosthenes
      14 The Scribes
      15 The Pharisees
      16 The Sadduccees
      17 The Hemerobaptists
      18 The Ossenes
      19 The Nasaraeans
      20 The Herodians
      21 The Simonians
      22 The Menandrianists
      23 The Saturnilians
      24 The Basilidians
      25 The Nicolaitans
      26 The Gnostics
      27 The Carpocratians
      28 The Cerinthians
      29 The Nazarenes
      30 The Ebionites
      31 The Valentinians
      32 The Secundians
      33 The Ptolemaeans
      34 The Marcoseans
      35 The Colarbasaeans
      36 The Heracleonites
      37 The Ophites
      38 The Cainites
      39 The Sethians
      40 The Archontics
      41 The Cerdonians
      42 The Marcionites
      43 The Lucianists
      44 The Apellians
      45 The Severians
      46 The Tatianists
      47 The Encratites
      48 The Cataphrygians, or Montanists, or Ascodrugites
      49 The Pepuzians, or Quintillians
      50 The Quartodecimans
      51 The Alogians
      52 The Adamians
      53 The Sampsaeans, or Elkesaites
      54 The Theodotians
      55 The Melchisedechians
      56 The Bardesanites
      57 The Noetians
      58 The Valesians
      59 The Cathari
      60 The Angelici
      61 The Apostolici
      62 The Sabellians
      63 The Origenians
      64 Other Origenians
      65 The Paulianists
      66 The Manichaeans
      67 The Hieracites
      68 The Meletians
      69 The Arians, or Ariomanites, or Diatomites
      70 The Audians
      71 The Photinians
      72 The Marcellians
      73 The Semiarians
      74 The Pneumatochi
      75 The Aerians
      76 The Aetians, or Anomaeans
      77 The Dimoerites, or Apollinarists
      78 The Antidicomarianites
      79 The Collyridians
      80 The The Massalians, or Euchites
      81 The Nestorians
      82 The Eutychians
      83 The Egyptians, or Schematics, or Monophysites
      84 The Aphthartodocetae
      85 The The Agnoetae, or Themistians
      86 The Barsanouphites, or Semidalites
      87 The Hicetae
      88 The Gnosimachi
      89 The Heliotropites
      90 The Thnetopsychites
      91 The Agonyclites
      92 The Theocatagonostae, or Blasphemers
      93 The Christolytae
      94 The Ethnophrones
      95 The Donatists
      96 The Ethicoproscoptae
      97 The Parermeneutae
      98 The Lampetians
      99 The Monothelites
      100 The Autoproscoptae
      101 The Ishmaelites
      102 The Christianocategori, or Iconoclasts
      103 The Aposchistae, or Doxarii
   THE ORTHODOX FAITH
BOOK ONE
      1 (1) That the Godhead is incomprehensible and that one should not search after or meddle in such things as have not been handed down to us by the holy Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists
      2 (2) On things which can be expressed through speech and things which cannot, and on things which are knowable and things which are not
      3 (3) A proof of the existence of God
      4 (4) On what God is, and that He is incomprehensible
      5 (5) A demonstration of the fact that there is one God and not several
      6 (6) On the Word and Son of God—a demonstration from reason
      7 (7) On the Holy Ghost—a demonstration from reason
      8 (8) On the Holy Trinity
         [On the distinction of the three Persons, and on actuality and reason and thought]
      9 (9) On those things which are affirmed of God
      10 (10) On the divine union and distinction
      11 (11) On the things that are affirmed of God as if He had a body
      12 (12) On the same things
         [More on the names of God and more precisely]
      13 (13) On the place of God, and that only the Divinity is uncircumscribed
         [On the place of an angel and of the soul; and on the uncircumscribed]
         [A miscellany on God, and the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and on the Word and the Spirit]
      14 (14) The attributes of the divine nature
BOOK TWO
      1 (15) On the term ‘age’
      2 (16) On creation
      3 (17) On angels
      4 (18) On the Devil and evil spirits
      5 (19) On visible creation
      6 (20) On the heavens
      7 (21) On light, fire, luminaries, the sun, the moon, and the stars
      8 (22) On air and winds
      9 (23) On water
      10 (24) On the earth and the things that come from it
      11 (25) On paradise
      12 (26) On man
      13 (27) On pleasures
      14 (28) On pain
      15 (29) On fear
      16 (30) On anger
      17 (31) On the imagination
      18 (32) On sense
      19 (33) On thought
      20 (34) On memory
      21 (35) On mental and spoken speech
      22 (36) On passion and action
      23 (37) On act
      24 (38) On voluntary and involuntary
      25 (39) On what depends upon us, that is, on free will
      26 (40) On things done
      27 (41) On the reason for our having been created free
      28 (42) On those things which do not depend upon us
      29 (43) On providence
      30 (44) On foreknowledge and predestination
BOOK THREE
      1 (45) On the divine dispensation and God’s concern for us, and our salvation
      2 (46) On the manner of the conception of the Word and on his sacred Incarnation
      3 (47) On the two natures, against the Monophysites
      4 (48) On the manner of the exchange of the properties
      5 (49) On the number of the natures
      6 (50) That the entire divine nature was united in one of its Persons to the entire human nature, and not a part of one to a part of the other
      7 (51) On the one composite Person of God the Word
      8 (52) To those who ask whether the natures of the Lord are reducible to a continuous quantity or to a divided one
      9 (53) Answer to the question whether there is such a thing as a nature without subsistence
      10 (54) On the Thrice-Holy Hymn
      11 (55) On the nature taken specifically and individually, on the difference between union and incarnation, and on how the expression ‘the one incarnate nature of the Word of God’ is to be understood
      12 (56) That the holy Virgin is Mother of God, against the Nestorians
      13 (57) On the properties of the two natures
      14 (58) On the wills and freedoms of our Lord Jesus Christ
      15 (59) On the operations which are in our Lord Jesus Christ
      16 (60) Against those who say that, if man has two natures and operations, then it is necessary to say that Christ has three natures and the same number of operations
      17 (61) On the deification of the nature of the Lord’s flesh and on that of His will
      18 (62) Further on wills and freedoms, minds and knowledges, and wisdoms
      19 (63) On the theandric operation
      20 (64) On the natural and blameless passions
      21 (65) On ignorance and servitude
      22 (66) On progress
      23 (67) On fear
      24 (68) On the prayer of the Lord
      25 (69) On appropriation
      26 (70) On the passibility of the Lord’s body and on the impassibility of His divinity
      27 (71) On the divinity of the Word remaining inseparable from the body and soul, even in the Lord’s death, and on the persistence of the one person
      28 (72) On destruction and corruption
      29 (73) On the descent into hell
BOOK FOUR
      1 (74) On the things that came after the resurrection
      2 (75) On the sitting at the right hand of the Father
      3 (76) Against those that say that, if Christ has two natures, either you adore the creature also by adoring a created nature, or you say that there is one nature that is adorable or one that is not
      4 (77) Why it was the Son of God that became man, and not the Father of the Holy Ghost; and what He accomplished, when He became man
      5 (78) To them who inquire as to whether the Person of Christ is created or uncreated
      6 (79) On when He was called Christ
      7 (80) To them who inquire as to whether the holy Mother of God engendered two natures, and whether two natures hung upon the cross
      8 (81) How the only-begotten Son of God can be called first-born
      9 (82) On faith and baptism
      10 (83) On faith
      11 (84) On the cross, wherein still further on faith
      12 (85) On worshiping to the east
      13 (86) On the holy and undefiled sacrament of the Lord
      14 (87) On the genealogy of the Lord, and on the holy Mother of God
      15 (88) On the honor due to the saints and their relics
      16 (89) On images
      17 (90) On Scripture
      18 (91) On the things that are said about Christ
      19 (92) That God is not the author of evil
      20 (93) That there are not two principles
      21 (94) Why God created those whom He foresaw were to sin and not repent
      22 (95) On the law of God and the law of sin
      23 (96) On the Sabbath, against the Jews
      24 (97) On virginity
      25 (98) On the circumcision
      26 (99) On Antichrist
      27 (100) On the resurrection
      Index

Item Number: BKCU709
Publication data: Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1958
Format: softcover
Number of pages: l + 426
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.0 cm × 13.7 cm × 2.4 cm
ISBN-10: 0‒8132‒0968‒4
ISBN-13: 978‒0‒8132‒0968‒5

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