As we are back to high effort powerpoint video presentations, in this video I give a review of St. John of Damascus’ Book I on the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. St. John of Damascus is one of the most significant Church Fathers, and his writings on the Orthodox faith is treated as a systematic theology book par excellence, he is highly revered both east and west and his life is inspiring, for the life of St. John of Damascus, watch this:
In Book I, St. John mostly talks about the nature of God, the Holy Trinity and essence energies distinction. The essence energies distinction in particular is a key aspect of St. John’s theology as this video shows. I also talk about the filioque since St. John’s theology strongly rejects the filioque and in fact openly advocates for what we Orthodox call “the energetic procession” of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son, which is not to be confused with the filioque, since the energetic procession of the Holy Spirit does not speak of the Holy Spirit being caused by the Son as the Roman Catholic dogma teaches (See Council of Florence Session 6) but that the Holy Spirit in God’s energetic activities both ad intra and ad extra proceed from the Father through the Son.
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About the author
David Erhan (previously known as therealMedWhite) is an Orthodox convert from Turkey who mostly focuses on Christological disputes concerning the Monophysite crisis. He's also the creator of the "History of Christian Theology" series on YouTube where he explains the theology of the great Church Fathers such as the Cappadocians, Hilary, Ambrose, Cyril, Maximus, and John of
Damascus which help reveal the true Apostolic Christianity the world has
forgotten.
