After the rules of Christian
dialectic and the review of the errors of ancient heresies comes at
last the book “Concerning the Orthodox Faith.” In
this book, John of Damascus retains the same order as was adopted by
Theodoret in his “Epitome of Divine Dogmas,” but takes a
different method. For the former, by the sheer weight of his own
genius, framed various kinds of arguments against heretics, adducing
the testimony of the sacred page, and thus he composed a concise
treatise of Theology. Our author, however, did not confine
himself to Scripture, but gathered together also the opinions of the
holy Fathers, and produced a work marked with equal perspicuity and
brevity, and forming an unexhausted storehouse of tradition in which
nothing is to be found that has not been either sanctioned by the
œcumenical synods or accepted by the approved leaders of the
Church.