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John of Damascus, Treatises
on the Divine Images
Discussion Guide |
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From my lips in their
defilement,
From my heart in its beguilement,
From my tongue which speaks not fair,
From my soul stained everywhere,
O my Jesus, take my prayer!
Spurn me not for all it says,
Not for words and not for ways,
Not for shamelessness endued!
Make me brave to speak my mood,
O my Jesus, as I would!
Or teach me, which I rather seek,
What to do and what to speak.
--from John of Damascus, Anacreontic Hymn |
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Treatise 1
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What are John's motivations for
writing? How does he describe the state of the Church?
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How does he purify his motives
through prayer?
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How does he answer the charges of
the iconoclastic position based on the Old Testament? Do you find his
exegesis convincing? Why or why not?
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How does he distinguish veneration
for worship and veneration for honor?
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Why does he take the time to
distinguish various kinds of images? (sec. 9-13)
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How does John conceive of matter's
role in salvation?
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Why is the hypostatic union of
Christ central to his argument?
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How does he defend images of the
saints?
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What theology undergirds this
defense? (cf. sec. 21)
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What are some of the more important
commentaries he makes on the florilegia following section 23?
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According to John, why are the body
and the senses important to receiving grace?
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How does he refute the emperor's
involvement with the controversy? (sec. 66)
John of Damascus' Morphology of
Images
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The Son as the Cosubstantial Image
of the Father
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The Eternal Archetypes in the Mind
of God
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Visible Symbols of Invisible Things
(Creation), including Scripture
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Typological Images of What Are to
Come
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Words and Images of Past Things to
Be Remembered (e.g. Icons)
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Human Beings as the Images of God
Exploratory Questions
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Do visual images have a role in
public worship?
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Do they have a role in private
prayer?
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Can one make a picture of God? of
Christ? of the Trinity?
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Can one venerate an object,
picture, or person without the worship reserved for God? Explain.
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What should our attitude be toward
the saints who have gone before us?
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How important is the body to
Christian spirituality?
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How important is it to Christian
salvation?
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What is the relationship between
Christian tradition and belief?
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If you were going to develop a
theology of the arts, what elements would need to be included?
Treatise 3 (sec. 1-41)
Assignment
For next class, you will be
assigned a debating team. One group will defend the proposition,
"John of Damascus offers a biblically and theologically convincing
defense of icons." The other group will call this proposition into
question. You should muster your evidence in the following manner:
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Locate important passages
in treatise 1 and treatise 3.1-41. (You may also draw from treatise 2
or from 3.42ff., though it is not required.)
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Draw from the insights of
others as discussed in the "Early Christian
Theology and the Iconoclastic Controversy" handout.
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Your
own biblical exegesis and theological tradition or other traditions as
you see fit.
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You
should attempt to anticipate the other side's claims and evidence and
be prepared to answer them.
Keep in mind that you may have to
defend a position for the debate that you don't entirely agree with. Treat
it as a learning exercise. At the end, we will drop the positions and
share as to what we each find most convincing. |
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