The first book of “The Orthodox Faith” treats of the essence and existence of God, the Divine nature, and the Trinity. As evidence of the existence of God he cites the concurrence of opinion among those enlightened by Revelation and those who have only the light of reason to guide them. To the same end he employs the argument drawn from the mutability of created things and that from design. Treating, in the second book, of the physical world, he summarizes all the views of his times, without, however, committing himself to any of them. In the same treatise he discloses a comprehensive knowledge of the astronomy of his day.
Here, also, place is given to the consideration of the nature of angels and demons, the terrestrial paradise, the properties of human nature, the foreknowledge of God, and predestination. Treating of man (c.xxvii), he gives what has been aptly called a “psychology in nuce”. Contrary to the teachings of Plotinus, the master of Porphyry, he identifies mind and soul. In the third book the personality and two-fold nature of Christ are discussed with great ability. This leads up to the consideration of the Monophysite heresy. In this connexion he deals with Peter the Fuller’s addition to the “Trisagion”, and combats Anastasius’s interpretation of this ancient hymn.
Concerning the Trisagion
The latter, who was Abbot of the monastery of St. Euthymius in Palestine, referred the “Trisagion” only to the Second Person of the Trinity. In his letter “Concerning the Trisagion” John Damascene contends that the hymn applies not to the Son alone, but to each Person of the Blessed Trinity. This book also contains a spirited defence of the Blessed Virgin’s claim to the title of “Theotokos.” Nestorius is vigorously dealt with for trying to substitute the title of “Mother of Christ” for “Mother of God”. The Scriptures are discussed in the fourth book. In assigning twenty-two books to the Old Testament canon he is treating of the Hebrew, and not the Christian, Canon, as he finds it in a work of Epiphanius, “De ponderibus et mensuris”. His treatment in this book of the Real Presence is especially satisfactory. The nineteenth chapter contains a powerful plea for the veneration of images.
The treatise, “Against the Jacobites”, was written at the request of Peter, Metropolitan of Damascus, who imposed on him the task of reconciling to the Faith the Jacobite bishop. It is a strong polemic against the Jacobites, as the Monophysites in Syria were called. He also wrote against the Manicheans and Monothelites. The “Booklet Concerning Right Judgment” is little more than a profession of Faith, confirmed by arguments setting forth the mysteries of the Faith, especially the Trinity and the Incarnation.
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