Creating a Theology of Icons in Umayyad Palestine: John of Damascus' "Three Treatises on the Divine Images"
John of Damascus (c. 655-745) is a striking figure in church history as a defender of icon veneration and as a Church Father who maintained Byzantine Orthodoxy despite living under Muslim rule. His life amongst Muslims and his association with the Umayyad Melkite Christian community, the Christian C...
| Published in: | The journal of ecclesiastical history |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
[2021]
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| In: |
The journal of ecclesiastical history
Year: 2021, Volume: 72, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-17 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
John, Damascenus 675-749, Contra imaginum calumniatores orationes tres
/ Icon
/ Judaism
/ Islam
/ Byzantine Empire
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| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism BJ Islam CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations CE Christian art KAD Church history 500-900; early Middle Ages KCD Hagiography; saints |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | John of Damascus (c. 655-745) is a striking figure in church history as a defender of icon veneration and as a Church Father who maintained Byzantine Orthodoxy despite living under Muslim rule. His life amongst Muslims and his association with the Umayyad Melkite Christian community, the Christian Church which attempted to maintain an adherence to Byzantine Orthodoxy after the Arab conquest, is often associated with his defence of icons. However, most scholarship claims that his Three treatises on the divine images were written solely against Byzantine iconoclasm. This article provides a close reading of his Treatises focusing on themes which overlap with contemporary Jewish and Muslim debates on figurative images, arguing that John wrote his Treatises in an attempt to create a seminal Melkite theology on icons for both Byzantine and Umayyad Christians faced with iconoclastic arguments from all three Abrahamic faiths. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-7637 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of ecclesiastical history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S002204692000007X |