Scott Ables, Vassa Kontouma, Robert Volk, Johannes Zachhuber, Smilen Markov, Anna Zhyrkova, Sean Anthony, Habib Ibrahim, Zachary Keith, Peter Schadler: The Purpose of the Anti-Manichaean Polemic of John of Damascus

This paper aims to discuss three research questions:  First, since Manicheanism was unlikely to be an ideological threat under the Umayyad’s why did John write an anti-Manichaean polemic?  Second, can anything be said regarding the date of this polemic relative to John’s other polemical works?  And finally, is this the only anti-Manichaean polemic John wrote?  That is, is there anything more to be said regarding the critical attribution to John the Grammarian of another such work that the tradition attributes to John of Damascus?