The Social and Intellectual Context of the Works of John Damascus

John Damascus was the last one of the fathers of the Church of the East, whose theological works had special significance for the Orthodox Church. He spent more than four decades of his life in his hometown of Damascus, and although he was in the Umayyad court, because of the suffering that he saw from the Umayyads, he turned to Jerusalem. He studied there and wrote some works, among which the critique of Iconoclasm and critique of Islam and the Quran are more important. While criticizing other schools of thought, he has used Greek philosophy and the words of the church, he insulted Islam instead of criticizing it according to reason and logic. This different approach to Islam is rooted in the mistreatment of the Umayyad rulers with him, and his retaliatory action has led to the denial of the beliefs of the Umayyads.