dependent upon food. Otherwise it is the same as the former. The fire of hell is not material, but in
what it consists God alone knows.
His remaining works are minor theological treatises, including a brief catechism on the
Holy Trinity; controversial writings against Mohammedanism (particularly interesting because of
the nearness of their author to the beginnings of that religion), and against Jacobites, Manichaeans,
Nestorians and Iconoclasts; homilies,^897 among them an eulogy upon Chrysostom; a commentary
on Paul’s Epistles, taken almost entirely from Chrysostom’s homilies; the sacred Parallels, Bible
sentences with patristic illustrations on doctrinal and moral subjects, arranged in alphabetical order,
for which a leading word in the sentence serves as guide. He also wrote a number of hymns which
have been noticed in a previous section.^898
Besides these there is a writing attributed to him, The Life of Barlaam and Joasaph^899 the
story of the conversion of the only son of an Indian King by a monk (Barlaam). It is a monastic
romance of much interest and not a little beauty. It has been translated into many languages,
frequently reprinted, and widely circulated.^900 Whether John of Damascus wrote it is a question.
Many things about it seem to demand an affirmative answer.^901 His materials were very old, indeed
pre-Christian, for the story is really a repetition of the Lalita Vistara, the legendary life of Buddha.^902
Another writing of dubious authorship is the Panegyric on St. Barbara,^903 a marvellous taleof a suffering saint. Competent judges assign it to him.^904 These two are characteristic specimens
of monastic legends in which so much pious superstition was handed down from generation to
generation.
III. Position. John of Damascus considered either as a Christian office-holder under a
Mohammedan Saracenic Caliph, as the great defender of image-worship, as a learned though
credulous monk, or as a sweet and holy poet, is in every way an interesting and important character.
But it is as the summarizer of the theology of the Greek fathers that he is most worthy of attentive
study; for although he seldom ventures upon an original remark, he is no blind, servile copyist. His
great work, the "Fount of Knowledge," was not only the summary of the theological discussions
of the ancient Eastern Church, which was then and is to-day accepted as authoritative in that
communion, but by means of the Latin translation a powerful stimulus to theological study in the
West. Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas and other schoolmen are greatly indebted to it. The epithets,
"Father of Scholasticism" and "Lombard of the Greeks" have been given to its author. He was not
a scholastic in the proper meaning of that term, but merely applied Aristotelian dialects to the
treatment of traditional theology. Yet by so doing he became in truth the forerunner of scholasticism.
An important but incidental service rendered by this great Father was as conserver of Greek
learning. "The numerous quotations, not only from Gregory Nazianzen, but from a multitude of
(^897) Lequien gives thirteen and the fragment of a fourteenth; but some, if not many, of them are not genuine.
(^898) See p. 405.
(^899) Migne, vol. XCVI., col. 860-1240.
(^900) Brunet gives the titles of Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Danish, Norwegian and Bohemian translations. It
was abridged in English under the title SaintJosaphat. Lond., 1711. It appears in the Golden Legend. The Greek text was first
printed in 1832.
(^901) So Langen, pp. 251-254.
(^902) Lupton, p. 217.
(^903) l.c. col. 781-813.
(^904) Langen, p. 238.