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An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

St. John of Damascus · c. 743 AD

11h 20m read
Post-Nicene

The third part of the Fount of Knowledge, a systematic summary of Orthodox Christian theology that became the standard dogmatic textbook for Eastern Christianity.

Table of Contents

1Prologue1Book I1That the Deity is incomprehensible, and that we ought not to pry into and meddle with the things which have not been delivered to us by the holy Prophets, and Apostles, and Evangelists2Concerning things utterable and things unutterable, and things knowable and thing unknowable3Proof that there is a God4Concerning the nature of Deity: that it is incomprehensible5Proof that God is one and not many6Concerning the Word and the Son of God: a reasoned proof7Concerning the Holy Spirit, a reasoned proof8Concerning the Holy Trinity9Concerning what is affirmed about God10Concerning divine union and separation11Concerning what is affirmed about God as though He had body12Concerning the Same13Further and more accurately concerning divine names14Concerning the place of God: and that the Deity alone is uncircumscribed15The properties of the divine nature2Book II1Concerning æon or age2Concerning the creation3Concerning angels4Concerning the devil and demons5Concerning the visible creation6Concerning the Heaven7Concerning light, fire, the luminaries, sun, moon and stars8Concerning air and winds9Concerning the waters10Concerning earth and its products11Concerning Paradise12Concerning Man13Concerning Pleasures14Concerning Pain15Concerning Fear16Concerning Anger17Concerning Imagination18Concerning Sensation19Concerning Thought20Concerning Memory21Concerning Conception and Articulation22Concerning Passion and Energy23Concerning Energy24Concerning what is Voluntary and what is Involuntary25Concerning what is in our own power, that is, concerning Free-will26Concerning Events27Concerning the reason of our endowment with Free-will28Concerning what is not in our hands29Concerning Providence30Concerning Prescience and Predestination3Book III1Concerning the Divine Œconomy and God's care over us, and concerning our salvation2Concerning the manner in which the Word was conceived, and concerning His divine incarnation3Concerning Christ's two natures, in opposition to those who hold that He has only one4Concerning the manner of the Mutual Communication5Concerning the number of the Natures6That in one of its subsistences the divine nature is united in its entirety to the human nature, in its entirety and not only part to part7Concerning the one compound subsistence of God the Word8In reply to those who ask whether the natures of the Lord are brought under a continuous or a discontinuous quantity9In reply to the question whether there is Nature that has no Subsistence10Concerning the Trisagium (“the Thrice Holy”)11Concerning the Nature as viewed in Species and in Individual, and concerning the difference between Union and Incarnation: and how this is to be understood, “The one Nature of God the Word Incarnate.”12That the holy Virgin is the Mother of God: an argument directed against the Nestorians13Concerning the properties of the two Natures14Concerning the volitions and free-will of our Lord Jesus Christ15Concerning the energies in our Lord Jesus Christ16In reply to those who say “If man has two natures and two energies, Christ must be held to have three natures and as many energies.”17Concerning the deification of the nature of our Lord's flesh and of His will18Further concerning volitions and free-wills: minds, too, and knowledges and wisdoms19Concerning the theandric energy20Concerning the natural and innocent passions21Concerning ignorance and servitude22Concerning His growth23Concerning His Fear24Concerning our Lord's Praying25Concerning the Appropriation26Concerning the Passion of our Lord's body, and the Impassibility of His divinity27Concerning the fact that the divinity of the Word remained inseparable from the soul and the body, even at our Lord's death, and that His subsistence continued one28Concerning Corruption and Destruction29Concerning the Descent to Hades4Book IV1Concerning what followed the Resurrection2Concerning the sitting at the right hand of the Father3In reply to those who say “If Christ has two natures, either ye do service to the creature in worshipping created nature, or ye say that there is one nature to be worshipped, and another not to be worshipped.”4Why it was the Son of God, and not the Father or the Spirit, that became man: and what having became man He achieved5In reply to those who ask if Christ's subsistence is create or uncreate6Concerning the question, when Christ was called7In answer to those who enquire whether the holy Mother of God bore two natures, and whether two natures hung upon the Cross8How the Only-begotten Son of God is called first-born9Concerning Faith and Baptism10Concerning Faith11Concerning the Cross and here further concerning Faith12Concerning Worship towards the East13Concerning the holy and immaculate Mysteries of the Lord14Concerning our Lord's genealogy and concerning the holy Mother of God15Concerning the honour due to the Saints and their remains16Concerning Images17Concerning Scripture18Regarding the things said concerning Christ19That God is not the cause of evils20That there are not two Kingdoms21The purpose for which God in His foreknowledge created persons who would sin and not repent22Concerning the law of God and the law of sin23Against the Jews on the question of the Sabbath24Concerning Virginity25Concerning the Circumcision26Concerning the Antichrist27Concerning the Resurrection