On November 4, 2022, the Pappas Patristic Institute hosted an online symposium honoring the work of Norman Russell and his translation of On the Orthodox Faith by St John of Damascus.
Hailed as the 'seal of the Fathers,' John of Damascus began his life as Mansur ibn Sarjun, a civil servant in the Islamic caliphate of the Umayyads. A lifelong subject of Arab rule, John is remembered as a Palestinian monk and one of the Church's most important dogmatic theologians and hymnographers. Celebrated especially for his synthesis of the Greek patristic tradition, from Athanasios of Alexandria to Maximos the Confessor, St John of Damascus is the author of a collection known as the Fount of Knowledge, a three-volume summa of both the 'outer' and 'inner' wisdom handed down by the Fathers. It is composed of (1) the Dialectica, a treatise which sets forth the best of Hellenic paideia and grapples with the mixed inheritence of pagan learning and Greek philosophy; (2) a treatise On Heresies, examining the errors that have historically threatened the Church and the true faith; and (3) his Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, or simply, On the Orthodox Faith, setting forth a positive (and magisterial) overview of orthodox Christian doctrine and theology.
The symposium on the Fount of Knowledge, organized by the Pappas Patristic Institute, brought together some of the foremost scholars of the Damascene's thought in order to explore topics in ancient philosophy, Trinitarian theology, Christology, and more. We invite you to join us for this deep exploration of the mind and work of one of the most impactful Fathers of the Christian Church, St John of Damascus, in an online symposium, November 4, 2022.
