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Quote by John of Damascus

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John of Damascus
John of Damascus

John of Damascus was a monk, theologian, philosopher, and writer from the Byzantine Empire. Born in 676 and died on December 4, 749, he is renowned for his contributions to Christian theology, particularly during the Iconoclasm controversy. His works, such as 'The Defense of Images,' had a profound impact on the development of religious philosophy and art in subsequent centuries. more

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“Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot, the passersby sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage because of the King who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Saviour on the cross. It is bound hand and foot; all who are in Christ trample it as they pass, and as witnesses to Him (King Jesus) deride it, scoffing and saying, “O Death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

DeathReligionSpiritualityChristianityJesus ChristTheologyResurrectionPatristics
Book:On the Incarnation
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“[...] if truth be told, evolution hasn’t yielded many practical or commercial benefits. Yes, bacteria evolve drug resistance, and yes, we must take countermeasures, but beyond that there is not much to say. Evolution cannot help us predict what new vaccines to manufacture because microbes evolve unpredictably. But hasn’t evolution helped guide animal and plant breeding? Not very much. Most improvement in crop plants and animals occurred long before we knew anything about evolution, and came about by people following the genetic principle of ‘like begets like’. Even now, as its practitioners admit, the field of quantitative genetics has been of little value in helping improve varieties. Future advances will almost certainly come from transgenics, which is not based on evolution at all. [review of The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life, Nature 442, 983-984 (31 August 2006)]”

ScienceEvolutionBiologySpeculationDarwinismConjectureDarwinMacroevolutionMacro EvolutionPseudo ScienceNeo DarwinismConfessions Of The DarwinistsDarwinist Confessions
Author:Jerry A. Coyne
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“We will begin then with the creation of the world with God its Maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: The renewal of Creation has been wrought by the Self-Same Word who made it in the beginning. There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works affecting the salvation of the world through the same Word who made it in the beginning.”

ReligionChristianityPatristics
Book:On the Incarnation
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“Being (in the sense of "God is Being, from whom all creation takes its being") is an auto-kenetic crystalline active power unfolding within itself unceasingly. The key concept is that of intrinsic cyclic motion, power to act. Existence is a verb, an action, a doing. "Action springs forth" (from "to be") as the "Word leapt.”

MetaphysicsBeingOntologyPatristicsMarius Victorinus
Book:Augustine and Nicene Theology: Essays on Augustine and the Latin Argument for Nicaea
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“The Kingdom of God is not a Talmud, nor is it a mechanical collection of scriptural or patristic quotations outside our being and our lives. The Kingdom of God is within us, like a dynamic leaven which fundamentally changes man's whole life, his spirit and his body. What is required in patristic study, in order to remain faithful to the Fathers' spirit of freedom and worthy of their spiritual nobility and freshness, is to approach their holy texts with the fear in which we approach and venerate their holy relics and holy icons. This liturgical reverence will soon reveal to us that here is another inexpressible grace. The whole atmosphere is different. There are certain vital passages in the patristic texts which, we feel, demand of us, and work within us, an unaccustomed change. These we must make part of our being and our lives, as truths and as standpoints, to leaven the whole. And at the same time we must put our whole self into studying the Fathers, waiting and marking time. This marriage, this baptism into patristic study brings what we need, which is not an additional load of patristic references and the memorizing of other people's opinions, but the acquisition of a new clear-sighted sense which enables man to see things differently and rightly. If we limit ourselves to learning passages by heart and classifying them mechanically — and teach men likewise — then we fall into a basic error which simply makes us fail to teach and make known the patristic way of life and philosophy.”

StudyTheologyOrthodoxKingdom Of GodPatristics
Book:Hymn of Entry: Liturgy and Life in the Orthodox Church
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“Within its own "world view" Egyptian hkꜢ was of far more exalted significance than its Coptic descendant or Western approximation. Amoral and quintessentially effective, a power to which gods, men, and all of nature were subject, it was still the same force whether used by god, king, priest, private individual, rebel, or foreign enemy, whether hostile or beneficent, sanctioned or suppressed. As the pre-eminent force through which the creator engendered and sustained the ordered cosmos, it was necessarily the dynamic "energy" which Egyptian religious ritual sought to channel that it might effect its identical goal, the preservation of the creator's universe. The cultic manipulation of this "energy" by recitation, substance, and ritual thus constituted a sophisticated system of "practical theology," a "theurgy" in which the priest quite literally "performed the works of god.”

MagicTheurgy
Book:The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice
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“Dalam sepanjang hidupnya dia tak pernah marah-marah. Memang hatinya sering disakiti orang dan dia jengkel. Namun sampai memaki atau membentak dengan kata tak senonoh, tak pernah dia lakukan. Dia adalah seorang dokter. Golongan elit yang terhormat. Dan semua perilaku yang menjengkelkan dari orang yang dihadapinya, dipandangnya sebagai tingkah orang sakit. Apa pun macam perangai orang, dia tak pernah sampai marah. Tidak ada orang yang sehat melakukan kesalahan, pikirnya. Orang yang mencuri, merampok, berkelahi, dan bahkan membunuh, jahat, dan zalim tentulah karena sakit. Kalau bukan karena sakit, karena apa lagi orang-orang demikian? Seperti juga orang-orang sakit pada fisiknya menderita karena penyakit turunan atau karena penularan dari luar. Demikian juga penyakit mental atau jiwa seseorang. Pastilah dapat diobati kalau diagnosa dan terapinya kena, apalagi bila diobati pada saat yang dini. Demikian juga pada kejiwaan seseorang. Pandangan hidup seperti itu menyebabkan hidupnya bisa tenteram dan banyak orang menghormatinya.”

IndonesiaSastraDokter
Book:Bertanya Kerbau pada Pedati: Kumpulan Cerpen
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