Table of Contents

1: Life and Times
2: John Damascene and Tradition
3: The Fountain Head of Knowledge: Nature and Development
4: Settling the Terms
5: Defining Error
6: Defining the Faith
7: Against the Iconoclasts
8: Chrysorrhoas ('flowing with gold'): John the Preacher
Steps to the Altar: John the Monk at Prayer
9: Glykorrhêmôn ('sweetly speaking'): John the Poet
Epilogue

About the Author

Andrew Louth is Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, University of Durham, and General Editor (with Gillian Clark) of Oxford Early Christian Studies

Reviews

`Review from previous edition Mr Louth writes like an angel.'
Theology
`A most learned, well-written and provoking book, with some surprises for all.'
Expository Times
`The reader finds himself being drawn into a long and fascinating conversation in which poets meet philosophers, philosophers meet theologians, and theologians encounter historians and literary critics. Claudel, Goethe, T. S. Eliot, Gadamer, Polanyi, Marcel, Lossky, de Lubac, Torrance, to mention only some, all make their contribution.'
PN Review
`it remains an interesting and original attempt to grapple with the nature of theology ... This book needs to be read as an eloquent protest against the dryness of much modern theology and biblical interpretation.'
Anvil
`The strength of this book is the way in which the author is able to illustrate the varied influences which are discernible in the writings of John.'
The Journal of Theological Studies
`With this study Andrew Louth comes to the climax of his trilogy of Byzantine theologians ... Louth's scholarly manner combines the historical analysis of literary connexions with the exposition of the ideas content of the texts and demonstrates an enviable familiarity with the entire range of Greek patristic literature ... a wonderful book.'
Journal of Ecclesiastical History
`... a remarkable combination of theology and scholarship, a fit monument to one who, as the final chapter demonstrates, has come as close to the first rank in theology as anyone ever did while being also a first-rate poet.'
Mark Edwards, Times Literary Supplement
`... an attractive thesis, argued with extraordinary lucidity and an impressive grasp of the relevant primary and secondary literature.'
The Catholic Historical Review
`There is much to stretch and expand our theological understanding in this fine book ... a clear introduction to an important and too little known writer.'
Church Times
`While being rigorous and detailed, the author is careful to write in an accessible and clear way, so that a reasonably well-informed reader can easily follow the argument.'
Church Times
`Louth's work is a monument of Patristic scholarship.'
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