Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology (Oxford Early Christian Studies) by Andrew Louth ISBN: 0-19-925238-6 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $74.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: St John Damascene
Comment: This book reminds me of the merchant finding a pearl of great price, and selling everything to possess it. For many years, Professor Louth has dedicated all his spare time and energy to discovering the spirit-the mind and heart, as well as the teaching-of John Damascene. However, unlike the merchant, he has generously placed at the disposal of others this extraordinary "pearl" of Byzantine theology. John is an unusual theologian: clearly very intelligent and well read in his great predecessors, especially the Cappadocians, Ps.-Denys, and Maximus the Confessor. However, he saw his theological work to be mainly that of a transmitter. The role of the speculative theologian, or at least that of the discoverer of new relationships, was not for him. Instead, he tried to be scrupulously careful in exposing the explanation of dogmatic truth that he found in the Fathers. This required sensitivity and firm good sense as he picked his way through the quicksands of both Trinitarian and Christological contoversy.
Professor Louth, in one of his best chapters, identifies him as a Chalcedonian, insisting on the two natures, but leaning over backwards to satisfy those devoted to Cyril's formula: "one incarnate nature of God the Word." So John was clearly a Neo-Chalcedonian (or Cyrilline Chalcedonian). This leads, Professor Louth points out (e.g. pp. 162, 175), to a notable "asymmetry" in the role of the two natures: the divine nature "does not partake of the passions of the flesh," and while the "nature of the flesh" is "deified," the "nature of the Word" is not "incarnate" (quoting John himself). It is difficult to reconcile this with the Chalcedonian definition with its emphasis on the symmetry between divinity and humanity. But Professor Louth is ready to acknowledge other weaknesses in John's approach, such as his "shrilly supersessionist account of the superiority of Christians over idolatrous Jews" (p. 203, and for other points see pp. 166, 170-171, 177). In this way he can give a very balanced account of John the theologian.
The key to interpreting John is to be found (suggests Professor Louth) in his monastic vocation. Where his personal character emerges is in his sermons, with their almost baroque accumulation of rhetorical imagery (very well presented in a chapter on John the Preacher), and above all in his liturgical hymns, the "canons" as the Greeks call them, which are interspersed in the singing of the divine Office, coming between the biblical canticles. Here also John is drawing on tradition, linking phrases taken from earlier authors (many of which have been identified by the learned Nikodimos, active on Mount Athos in the early nineteenth century). This same devotion to the living reality of God, the Word Incarnate, and the Virgin Mary, probably provided the motive force for the compilation of the dogmatic and polemical works (p. 144). For Professor Louth the structure of John's main work based on the "century"-one hundred chapters-indicates a monastic mould (and indeed many Byzantine spiritual writings take the form of a hundred chapters or aphorisms). He claims that John has to be seen in this context:
This, I think, is worth noting: John's The Fountain Head of Knowledge is not really a proto-scholastic summary, as it is often taken to be; rather, it is concerned with shaping and moulding the monastic vocation of its readers, or, more widely, with defining what it is to be a Christian, understood less as a set of beliefs (despite the high doctrinal content) than as a way of life. (p. 37)
This is an attractive thesis, argued with extraordinary lucidity and an impressive grasp of the relevant primary and secondary literature. If one hesitates to accept it, the reason lies in the tantalizing lack of hard-and-fast information about John himself. Professor Louth rightly points out that the supposed links with Mar Saba Monastery are late suppositions, and could be legendary. While it seems certain that John knew Jerusalem and its Patriarchs, there is no proof that he actually lived in the city; however, this would make his preaching role (his main claim to fame apart from his liturgical work) more understandable, even more so if he had some sort of teaching post in the Holy City. His polemical works do suggest real contacts with a variety of other believers. Again the violence of his anti-Jewish remarks is less understandable if coming from a monk cooped up in a remote monastery. Professor Louth draws an intriguing parallelism between John and Venerable Bede in Jarrow, both scholars, both monks, both authors in a variety of literary genres. But perhaps one should be thinking rather of Thomas Aquinas: someone who is equally devout and famous for his liturgical hymns, but at the same time a teacher caught in the cut-and-thrust of university debate, and required to teach future clerics what is the true faith. Thomas recognized in his remote predecessor a pioneer for what he himself would try to do in greater detail, and they were certainly kindred spirits.
Thus, while welcoming Professor Louth's study as an invaluable guide along the way, one has to point out that much road remains to be traveled, not least while the bulk of John's massive florilegium, a sort of Scriptural catena, or commentary (the Sacra Parallela) still waits for an editor. The very dates in which he lived remain under dispute, and even more so the dates of his various books. There is also the intriguing problem of his relation to his older, and equally prolific, contemporary, Anastasius of Sinai, also a monk, but apparently more preoccupied with the questions raised by devout lay Christians; similarly, the later omission of all mention of John by that omnivorous reader, the Patriarch Photios, is puzzling. Again, what was his relation to the "Roman" Emperor in Constantinople? It seems strange that a trusted minister of the Ummayad caliph in Damascus should urge obedience to, and prayers for, the Byzantine Emperor (though he is prepared to criticize those Emperors who wish to impose iconoclasm [pp. 204-205, 282]). His whole involvement in the Constantinopolitan iconoclast controversy-where he was to play a major role, acknowledged later by both the Seventh Ecumenical council and Theodore the Studite-raises questions if he was living in a remote desert monastery in Palestine.
Despite all these and other questions, with this book the first step has been taken, and, therefore-as the saying goes-half the road has been traveled.
Joseph A. Munitiz
 |
Title: The Christian World of the Middle Ages by Bernard Hamilton ISBN: 0750924055 Publisher: Sutton Publishing Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
 |
Title: From Judgment to Passion by Rachel Fulton ISBN: 023112550X Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $42.50 |
 |
Title: Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor (Communio Books.) by Hans Urs Von Balthasar ISBN: 0898707587 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: The Song of Songs: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators (The Church's Bible) by Richard A. Norris Jr. ISBN: 0802825796 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
 |
Title: Science and Wisdom by Jurgen Moltmann, Margaret Kohl ISBN: 0800635876 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
