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An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith QUOTES

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith QUOTES

1 " evil is nothing else than absence of goodness, just as darkness also is absence of light. For goodness is the light of the mind, and, similarly, evil is the darkness of the mind. Light, therefore, being the work of the Creator and being made good (for God saw all that He made, and behold they were exceeding good(8)) produced darkness at His free-will. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

2 " since the wickedness of the Evil One has prevailed so mightily against man’s nature as even to drive some into denying the existence of God, that most foolish and woe-fulest pit of destruction (whose folly David, revealer of the Divine meaning, exposed when he said(9), The fool said in his heart, There is no God), "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

3 " Envy is pain over the good fortune of others. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

4 " all the statements made about God that imply body have some hidden meaning and teach us what is above us by means of something familiar to ourselves, with the exception of any statement concerning the bodily sojourn of the God-Word. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

5 " the very continuity of the creation, and its preservation and government, teach us that there does exist a Deity, who supports and maintains and preserves and ever provides for this universe. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

6 " The angel energises in different places by the quickness of his nature and the promptness and speed by which he can change his place: but the Deity, Who is everywhere and above all, energises at the same time in diverse ways with one simple energy. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

7 " It must not be supposed that the heavens or the luminaries are endowed with life(3). For they are inanimate and insensible(4). So that when the divine Scripture saith, Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad(5), it is the angels in heaven and the men on earth that are invited to rejoice. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

8 " He who longs alway after God, he seeth Him: for God is in all things. Existing things are dependent on that which is, and nothing can be unless it is in that which is. God then is mingled with everything, maintaining their nature: and in His holy flesh the God-Word is made one in subsistence and is mixed with our nature, yet without confusion. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

9 " The Son is the counsel and wisdom and power of the Father. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

10 " One must know that operation (energia) is one thing, what is operative (energetikon) another, that which is operated (energema) another, and yet another the operator (energon). Operation, then, is the efficient and essential (ousiodes) motion of the nature (physeos). And that which is operative is the nature (physis) from which the operation proceeds. The operated is the effect of the operation. And the operator is the person (hypostasis) who performs the operation. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

11 " For generation means that the begetter produces out of his essence offspring similar in essence. But creation and making mean that the creator and maker produces from that which is external, and not out of his own essence, a creation of an absolutely dissimilar nature(3). "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

12 " it is quite impossible for us men clothed about with this dense covering of flesh to understand or speak of the divine and lofty and immaterial energies of the Godhead, except by the use of images and types and symbols derived from our own life(7). "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

13 " The Creator, then, being uncreated, is also wholly immutable. And what could this be other than Deity? "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

14 " the term ‘Only-begotten’(1) because He alone was begotten alone of the Father alone. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

15 " He brought all things out of nothing into being and created them, both what is invisible and what is visible. Yea, even man, who is a compound of the visible and the invisible. And it is by thought that He creates, and thought is the basis of the work, the Word filling it and the Spirit perfecting it(2). "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

16 " goodness is existence and the cause of existence, but wickedness is the negation of goodness, that is, of existence. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

17 " For the Godhead is not compound but in three perfect subsistences, one perfect indivisible and uncompound God. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

18 " For there never was a time when the Father was and the Son was not, but always the Father and always the Son, Who was begotten of Him, existed together. For He could not have received the name Father apart from the Son: for if He were without the Son(7), He could not be the Father: and if He thereafter had the Son, thereafter He became the Father, not having been the Father prior to this, and He was changed from that which was not the Father and became the Father. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

19 " we recognise one God: but only in the attributes of Fatherhood, Sonship, and Procession, both in respect of cause and effect and perfection of subsistence, that is, manner of existence, do we perceive difference(5). "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

20 " The angel’s nature then is rational, and intelligent, and endowed with free-will, change. able in will, or fickle. For all that is created is changeable, and only that which is un-created is unchangeable. Also all that is rational is endowed with free-will. As it is, then, rational and intelligent, it is endowed with free-will: and as it is created, it is changeable, having power either to abide or progress in goodness, or to turn towards evil. "

― John of Damascus , An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith