Fount of Knowledge and On the Divine Images
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A monk living under Muslim rule, beyond the reach of the emperor destroying icons, writes both the systematic summary of Greek Christian doctrine and the argument that saved images.
- veneration distinguished from worship, and directed past the object
- representation justified by the incarnation rather than by custom
- the first systematic summary of eastern Christian doctrine
- argument made possible by living outside the emperor's reach
The Fount of Knowledge sets out philosophical vocabulary, a catalogue of heresies, and then an ordered exposition of doctrine that became the standard eastern summary and, translated, influenced Latin scholastic method. His three treatises on images answer iconoclasm with a distinction: veneration is not worship, and it passes to the person depicted rather than resting on the wood. The deeper argument is that the incarnation changed what may be represented, since God took a depictable form. That he was writing outside imperial jurisdiction is not incidental.
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