The most important literary achievement of Damas- cenus IS the Il,;y,) ^vwfffu*!,- (Source of Knowledge),
comprising the following three works: 1. Kf^dXatrt <I>i\o(ro0iK«, or Dialectics, which treats almost exclu- sively of logical and ontological categories, based main- ly on Aristotle and Porphyry: — 2. Htpi a'l^Eaewv iv avvTovia, De kceresibus, containing in 103 articles a chronological synopsis of the heresies in the Christian Church, with a few articles on the errors of pagans and Jews (the first eighty are really the work of Epipha- nius; the remainder partly treat of the heresies from the time of Epiphanius to that of the image controver- sies, according to Theodoretus, Sophronius, Leontius of Byzantium, etc., and partly of fictitious sects, which merely represent possible, not actual errors of belief) : — 3. The third and most important work, to which the former two were really simply the introduction, is enti- tled "EKdoffig a;cpi/3j}c '"'/f TriffTtwg op^oSoKov, Doc- trines of the Orthodox Church, collected from the writ- ings of the Church fathers, especially Gregory of Nazi- anzum, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory of N3'ssa, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Cyril, Nemesius, and others. The whole work is divided into 100 sections or four books (the latter is probabty a later arrangement), and treats of the following subjects : (a) God's existence, es- sence, unity, and the possibility of knowing Mm. Though John teaches that it is neither impossible to know God, nor possible to know him all ; that his essence is neither expressible nor entirely inexpressible, he nevertheless inclines to the transcendental character of the idea of God, assigning to human thought incapacity for its conception, and referring man, in the end, as Areopagi- tes does, to the records of divineh' revealed truth. It may be considered as a characteristic feature of his the- ology that it principally dwells on God's metaphysical attributes, hardly touching the ethical question, (b) The Trinity, to which he gives great prominence. He not only repeats the doctrines of the Greek Church, as well as the arguments of the Greek fathers, but resumes a scientific construction of the dogma within the estab- lished creed, though admitting that there are certain bonids to the inquiry, which human reason cannot scale (Aciivarov yap ihciiSirivai iv tT] ktiou tiKovn a-jrapaWaKTwc f" lavrT] rbv toottov rijc ayiag rpia- SoQ TrapaSiiKi'vovirav'). The Trinity, therefore, can- not be adequately conceived nor defined. His real ob- ject in the discussion seems to he to found the personal- ity of the Xoyof and of the Trvivfia ayinv upon the unity of the divine essence, and, further, to describe the nature of coexistence, and of personal difference in the Triune, and the reciprocal relations of the three persons — TTCpixi-jpilTiQ — with all attainable strictness, and he at- tempts to achieve this result rather by the negative pro- cess of excluding fallacies than by positive demonstra- tion. Whenever he ventures upon the latter he fluctuates between Peripateticism, tending to Tritheism. and Plato- nism, leading almost imperceptibly to Sabellianism and Jlodalism. (e) Creation, A ngels, and Dcemons. On these he simply collects the doctrines of his predecessors, clos- ing with a somewhat lengthy exposition of his views on heaven, heavenly bodies, light, fire, winds, water, earth, also chiefly based on the authority of the fathers. Some singular opinions of his own he attempts to sup- port by scriptural passages. ((Z) Man, his creation and nature, are so treated by him that they may ajjtly be termed a psychology in nuce. Here he again deiicnded on Aristotle and other Greek authors, in part directly, and in part through the medium of Nemesius, Tztpl (po- (jeuiQ dv^pwTTov. Like a genuine son of the Greek Church, he lays particular stress on the doctrine of free will and its efficacy for good, and treats in connection therewith of the doctrines of providence and predesti- nation, following in the footsteps of Chrysostom and Nemesius. (e) Man's fall is merely adverted to in the vague oratorical manner of Semipelagian writers, with- out the least regard for the great development which this doctrine had received in the Western Church. (/) The doctrine of the person of Christ is argued with greatest fullness, and he evinces no little inirenuity and
JOHN
965
JOHX