JOHN OF DAMASCUS, also known as John Damascene, was an eighth-century Christian saint, church father, monastic, theologian, author, and poet. Little is known with certitude about John's life. The dates of both his birth and his death are disputed, as are the number of years that he lived. A conservative assessment of the evidence indicates that he was probably born about 679 and died at the age of seventy in 749. It is generally accepted that he was born into a Greek-speaking Syrian family of Damascus, known as Mansour ("victorious," or, "redeemed"). His father, Sergius, held the high position of logothetes in the Muslim caliphate at the end of the seventh century. John enjoyed a full course of instruction as a youth, including mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, rhetoric, logic, philosophy (Plato and Aristotle), and theology.

Following the death of his father, John assumed an economic administrative...