ABSTRACT
One thinker among the Arabs whose significant influence on Aquinas’ thought has been largely neglected in scholarship is Mansūr Ibn Sarjūn, known in the West as John Damascene (d. 750 CE). Although Ibn Sarjūn was a Christian monk and wrote in Greek, he was born and raised in Damascus in the seventh century shortly after the region came under Arab Umayyad rule. In his works, he offers a defense of the use of images in religious worship. Aquinas was a direct beneficiary of the work of the Damascenus, and makes frequent references to it, especially concerning the philosophy of religion, the notion of adoration and the role of the body in worship, and the worship of religious images. This essay argues that Damascene should be counted among the “Arabs” who most influenced Aquinas’ thought, and presents Aquinas’ account of the use of the body and externals in religious worship as an area in which Damascene’s influence is noticeable.
