Doctrine of Angels in «The Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith» of St. John of Damascus
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31802/GB.2021.41.2.007Keywords:
angels, John of Damascus, Dionysius the Areopagite, Mother of God, definition of substance, image of God,, circumscription, eschatologyAbstract
In the Holy Scripture, angels are described as immeasurably more perfect beings than humans, yet at the same time, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, humans are placed much higher than the «ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation» (Heb. 1, 14). Very few Fathers have attempted to systematically discuss the ontological status and role of the heavenly powers. In the most famous treatise on angels, On the Celestial Hierarchy, Dionysius the Areopagite discusses angels in the Neoplatonic hierarchical paradigm used as a conceptual basis for the archaic doctrine of angels as intermediaries in the transmission of divine revelation, and for the most part underplaying the radical and paradoxical “collapse” of ontological hierarchies in the Incarnation and supreme role of human nature placed bodily at the right hand of the Father on the throne of glory in the hypostasis of the Son. An alternative doctrine of angels to that of Dionysius appears in a short chapter on angels in John of Damascus’ Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, which emphasizes the ontological status of angels equal to humans as a part of the created world. In other writings, John Damascene provides a convincing Christological solution to the dichotomy between the angelic exalted state and human limited state in the spirit of the Epistle to the Hebrews, offering two striking examples as a resolution: the Mother of God, immeasurably superior to all angelic powers, exalted more than cherubim and exalted above the seraphim, and participation in the Eucharist granted to people, but not to angels.
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