VASSA KONTOUMA: The Understanding of the Sacraments in John of Damascus’ Theology

The final chapters of John of Damascus’ Ekdosis akribēs tēs orthodoxou pisteōs (CPG 8043) are usually considered incoherent. In the Latin Middle Ages, they were part of Book IV of the Ekdosis, an artificial division inspired by Peter Lombard’s fourth book of Sentences, De Doctrina Signorum – that they also aroused in a certain way. In a first paper published in Bose in 2006 and translated into English under the title “The Fount of Knowledge between conservation and creation” (Ashgate 2015, V), I had suggested some ways of interpreting these chapters within the theological project of John of Damascus. More specifically, concerning chs. 82-92, I had argued that they constituted a whole related to the “means of Salvation bequeathed by the Lord”. That is the subject I wish to explore further in the present paper, in the framework of a more general reflection on the place accorded by our author to the notion of sacrament. Inter alia, my contribution is intended to illustrate with a particular example the general theme of the workshop “John of Damascus: more than a Compiler”.