John of Damascus and the Consolidation of Classical Christian Demonology
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Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects Imagining Demons in Post-Byzantine Jerusalem: John of Damascus and the Consolidation of Classical Christian Demonology Nathaniel Ogden Kidd Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Kidd, Nathaniel Ogden, "Imagining Demons in Post-Byzantine Jerusalem: John of Damascus and the Consolidation of Classical Christian Demonology" (2018). Dissertations (1934 -). 839. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/839 IMAGINING DEMONS IN POST-BYZANTINE JERUSALEM: JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN DEMONOLOGY by The Rev. Nathaniel Ogden Kidd, B.A., M.Div A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin December, 2018 ABSTRACT IMAGINING DEMONS IN POST-BYZANTINE JERUSALEM: JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN DEMONOLOGY The Rev. Nathaniel Ogden Kidd, B.A., M.Div Marquette University, 2018 This dissertation traces the consolidation of a classical Christian framework for demonology in the theological corpus of John of Damascus (c. 675 – c. 750), an eighth century Greek theologian writing in Jerusalem. When the Damascene sat down to write, I argue, there was a great variety of demonological options available to him, both in the depth of the Christian tradition, and in the ambient local imagination. John’s genius lies first in what he chose not to include, but second in his ability to synthesize a minimalistic demonology out of a complex body of material and integrate it into a broader theological system. John’s synthesis was so effective, in fact, that it looks reflexively obvious as a statement of Christian demonology in the Scriptural-patristic tradition: it would not necessarily have been so to his contemporaries. I begin the study with an invitation to enter into an imaginative of reading John through the epithet “destroyer of demons” attached to him in his commemoration, and conclude it with an analysis of John’s understanding of the demonic as a “demon destroying” demonology. Between these terminal points are four chapters: two parsing what John drew from the Christian faith as he knew and had received it, and two considering extrinsic factors shaping John’s thought and imagination, including a discussion of alternate systems of demonology that we can locate in John’s approximate context. The final analysis mirrors my initial discussion of the themes that John inherited, drawing attention to the subtle ways he transformed his theological tradition in laying out a precise paradigm for future theological reflection on the nature of the devil and demons. John’s demonology – though minimal – is robust, and to read John using his ideas about the devil and demons as a focal point both draws attention to the complexities hidden within demonology as a subject and heightens our appreciation for the extraordinary qualities of the Damascene’s intellect and contribution. In broadest application, finally, recognizing the vast difference between the assumptions, methods, and means underwriting John’s demonology and our own in seeking to understand it prompts reflection on the nature and limits of the historical imagination in theology. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Rev. Nathaniel Ogden Kidd, B.A., M.Div As an activity in the physical world, reading and writing is a solitary exercise: paradoxically, however, scholarship and research require much society. I would be remiss not to acknowledge and to express my gratitude for some of those persons and institutions who have most directly made this work possible. I will move past that great catalogue of names of men and women both living and dead who have taught and inspired and shaped me with their writings: terse acknowledgements to these decorate my footnotes and form my Bibliography, although I could say much more about each and my indebtedness to it. Within this community of writers, thinkers, and academics, it is right for me to extend an additional thanks to my advisor in the project, Dr. Marcus Plested, as well as those members of my board, Dr. Michel Barnes, Dr. Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent, and Dr. Andrei Orlov. Acknowledgment is due also to my teachers and encouragers along the way – Fr. John Behr, Dr. Garwood Anderson, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Holtzen, the Rev. Dr. Arnold Klukas, and the Rev. Dr. Daniel Westburg (of blessed memory) – without whose direction and encouragement I would never have come to this place. Marquette University has been a wonderful environment for my development as a scholar, as a priest, and as a human being. I am grateful for the hospitality and generosity of the Campus Ministry Department, which blessed me with a three-year assignment in one of Marquette’s dorms as a Hall Minister. My students in the classroom and in the residence hall helped to anchor me in the human world when I might have cloistered myself in the library and floated off into the realm of ideas. Special thanks is due to the generosity of the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation, whose leadership-oriented fellowship over the 2017-2018 academic year, in freeing me from teaching responsibilities, made the completion of this dissertation possible. Concurrently, I am grateful to the advisement, counsel, and professional development I have had available to me Graduate School, and Dr. Carrianne Hayslett in particular, whose energy and wisdom regarding teaching, learning, and leadership has been of great benefit to me. I am also grateful to the Marquette Writing Center, where I have in various ways workshopped a significant amount of the following prose. As an Anglican priest, I have necessarily conducted my scholarship – to a significant extent – in the Church and for the Church. To that end, I am grateful to Archbishop Robert Duncan, who supported and encouraged my studies in its early stages, and my present Bishop, Ken Ross, whose patience has given me the margins I need to complete it. I look forward to bringing fruits of this project into ministry in the Diocese of the Rocky Mountains. I am grateful to Fr. Steve Block, and the men of St. Martin’s, who tolerated this academic in their blessed company, as well as the Rev. Dr. Michael Cover, whose encouragement in prayer through the Marquette Canterbury Fellowship was a welcome balm to my soul. I am grateful also to Bishop Azad Marshall, and the faculty, staff, and students of Lahore College of Theology, which provided me an ii opportunity to road-test some of my early methodological experiments with students. Within the community of faith, finally, I am fortunate to have been blessed with many excellent conversation partners who have indirectly helped this project to mature and develop. Their full number cannot be tallied for its magnitude, but among them are Jonathan Sedlak, Hunter Farrow, Anthony Wick, Daniel Adsett, David Burnett, the Rev. Dr. Phil Anderas, the Rev. Jonathan Kanary, and the Rev. Ben Jeffries. Last and certainly not least, I must express my most heartfelt thanks to those members of that smallest, closest, and most important of communities, my family: my wife Sarah and daughter Madeleine especially, who sacrificed many hours with daddy to make the completion of this project possible. My parents, Anne and Steve, should also be named as their encouragement and support have done much to sustain me through this process. Anything that is worthwhile in the pages that follow is deeply indebted and gratefully dedicated to all those remembered above: conversely, every fault, mistake, or error that may be found in it is mine and mine alone. iii ABBREVIATIONS AB Analecta Bollandiana ACG Abhandlungen der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen and Philologisch-Historische Klasse. Berlin, 1825-1921. ACO Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum. ser. 1, ed. E. Schwartz, J. Straub, R. Schieffer, 19 vols. de Gruyter, 1927-74; ser. 2, ed. R. Riedinger, 4 vols., 1984-85. Analecta Ἀνάλεκτα Ἱεροσολυμιτικῆς Σταχυολογίας, 5 vols. ed. A. Papadopoulos- Kerameus. St. Petersburg, 1891-98. AV Ανάλεκτα Βλατάδων CCSG Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca, Brepols, 1977ff. CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, Brepols, 1954ff. CFHB Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, de Gruyter, 1966f. CPG Clavis Patrorum Grecorum, 5 vols., M. Geerard and F. Glorie, CCS 1974- 1987; supplement M. Geerard and J. Noret, 1998. Cited by item number. CPL Clavis Patrorum Latinorum, E. Dekkers, 2nd ed., Steenbrugge, 1961. Cited by item number. CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Peeters, 1903ff. BHG Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, 3 vols. ed. F. Halkin, 3rd ed, Subsidia Hagiographica, Brussels, 1987. Cited by item number. Byz Byzantion BMGS Byzantine and Medieval Greek Studies BZ Byzantine Zeitschrift CAG Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca CHist Church History DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers DSp Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, ascétique, et mystique. ed. J. de Guibert, Beauchesne, 1992. iv ER Encyclopedia of Religion, 16 vols., ed. M. Eliade, Macmillan, 1986. FC Fathers of the Church: A New Translation. Catholic University of America Press, 1947f. GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller. Leipzig. GNO Gregorii Nysseni Opera. ed. W. Jager, et al. Brill. GOTR Greek Orthodox Theological Review Hiereia Horos Die ikonoklastische Synode von Hiereia 754: Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar ihres Horos.Torsten Krannich and Annette von Stockhausen, ed. and tr. Mohr Siebeck, 2002. JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies JMEMS Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies JRS Journal of Roman Studies JSP Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Lampe A Patristic Greek Lexicon, ed. G. H. W. Lampe. Oxford, 1968. LCL Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1912 ff. Mansi Mansi, J. D. Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio. A. Zatti, 1759-98. OCA Orientalia Christiana Analecta OCP Orientalia Christiana Periodica OHLA Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity OLP Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica OTP Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols.