JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND THE CHURCH IN SYRIA IN THE UMAYYAD ERA: THE INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL MILIEU OF ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD OF ISLAM

Abstract

St. John of Damascus (c. 675 –– c. 749) was a contemporary of the Umayyad caliphs (661––750). The twin social processes comprising the ‘‘Arabicization’’ and the concomitant ‘‘Islamicization’’ of the public domain of the caliphate at the turn of the eighth century set the stage for the first Christian responses to the social and religious challenges of Islam. St. John of Damascus and his Arabic-speaking heirs were the spokesmen who upheld the ‘‘Melkite’’ tradition and provided the basic principles for the self-definition of ‘‘Melkite’’ Orthodoxy in the world of Islam. The interests of the emerging community of ‘‘Melkite’’ Orthodox Christians in the Umayyad era in Syria/Palestine furnish the most immediate frame of reference for appreciating the significance of the works of St. John of Damascus.