Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Icons — PART II

St. John of Damascus

Author: St. John of Damascus

I CRAVE your indulgence, my masters, and ask you to receive the true statement of one who is

an unprofitable servant, the least of all, in the Church of God. I have not been moved to speak

by motives of vainglory, God is my witness, but by zeal for the truth. In this alone is my hope

of salvation, and with it I trust and pray to go out to meet Christ our Lord, asking that it may

be an expiation for my sins. The man who received five talents from his lord, brought other five

which he had gained, and the man with two, other two. The man who received one, and buried it,

gave it back without interest, and being pronounced a wicked servant, was banished into external

darkness. (Mt. 25.20ff) Lest I should suffer in the same way, I obey God’s commands, and

with the talent of eloquence, which is His gift, I put before the wise among you a treasure

table, so that when the Lord comes He may find me rich in souls, a faithful servant, whom He may

take into that ineffable joy of His, which is my desire. Give me listening ears and willing

hearts. Receive my treatise, and ponder well the force of the arguments. This is the second part

of my work on icons. Certain children of the Church have urged me to do it because the first part

was not sufficiently clear to all. Be indulgent with me on this account, for my obedience.

The wicked serpent of old, Beloved, I mean the devil--is wont to wage war in many ways against

man, who is made after God’s image, and to work his destruction through opposition. In the

very beginning he inspired man with the hope and desire of becoming a god, and through that

desire he dragged man down to share the death of the brute creation. He has enticed man also by

shameful and brutal pleasures. What a contrast between becoming a god and feeling brutal lust.

And again, he led man into infidelity, as the royal (qeopatwr) David says: “The fool said

in his heart there is no God.” (Ps. 14.1) At one time he has brought man to worship too

many gods, at another not even the true God, sometimes demons, and again, the heavens and the

earth, the sun and moon and stars, and the rest of creation, wild beasts and reptiles. It is as

bad to refuse due honour where honour is due, as to give it where it is not due. Again, he has

taught some to call the uncreated god evil, and has deceived others by making them recognise God,

who is good by nature, as the author of evil. Some he has deceived by the misconception of one

nature and one substance of the Godhead; some he has induced to honour three natures and three

substances; some one substance in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity;

some two natures and two substances.

But the truth, taking a middle course, sweeps away these misconceptions and teaches us to

acknowledge one God, one nature in three persons (upostasesi) the Father, the Son, and the Holy

Ghost. Evil is not a being, but an accident, a certain conception, word,