IMAGES AND ICONOLATRY IN CHRISTENDOM, A POST-MODERN APPROACH

Journal For the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2013

This study offers an overview of the opposing attitudes towards the image worship in the Early Christianity and the Late Antiquity. It shows that a dichotomy between creation and veneration of images on one side and iconoclastic tendencies on the other side persisted in the Christian tradition throughout the first seven centuries. While the representations of holy figures and holy events increased in number throughout the Byzantine Empire, they led to a puritanical reaction by those who saw the practice of image worship as little removed from the anthropomorphic features of polytheistic religious cults. Hence, as the role of images grew so did the resistance against them, and the two contrasting positions in the Christian context initiated the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy, when the theological discourse concerning icons became ever more subtle, culminating in the development of the iconophile and iconoclastic teachings on the holy images. Both the iconophile and the iconoclasts based their apologia on passages from the Synoptic Gospels, evidence of the artistic tradition as well as florilegia or systematic collections of excerpts from the works of the Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers of the early period in support of their claim; much of this evidence is surveyed in this paper, although the Iconoclastic Controversy is not analysed.

Nordicom Review

The point of departure for this article is ‘the visual turn’, the proclaimed need for specific competencies, and furthermore the lack of clarity in the concepts and the lack of research that accompany the use of images. Terms like ‘visual literacy’ and “visual competence’ are compared with a concept of visual ‘Bildung’. ‘Bildung’ is presented as a concept that clearly goes beyond qualifications and a dominant market-oriented comprehension of competence. In its origin, ‘Bildung’ has obvious references to ‘image’, and it may also offer interesting new perspectives in the battle between words and images that has taken place throughout history and is a background to today’s situation. ‘Bildung’ opens up an interesting path between iconoclasm and idolatry. The article proclaims an urgent need for a visual and reflective ‘Bildung’, because images are closely related to the world in which we live today.

Among the increasing amount of publications devoted ta Visual Studies, it is quite astanishing ta note that there are very few references ta iconology as a disciplinary landmark from which Visual Studies would have to take up a position, a situation that differs from the German tradition where there exists a certain conti nuit y between iconology and present-day Bildwissenschatt. To mention just one example of this quasisilence: in the histariographical synthe sis by Margaret Dikovitskaya there is no index entry for the word iconology (Dikovitskaya, 2.006). There are of course exceptions: for 17

This dissertation examines the relation of iconic images to Real or spiritual presence, analyzing key debates and exemplary case studies in a long history of controversy, from the iconoclastic period of eighth and ninth centuries in Byzantium to the Reformation in Italy of the sixteenth. The focus is the icon of Christ's Passion-what became the imago pietatis in the Latin West and the related pietà-reexamined as a site of cultural conflict, theoretical reflection and artistic negotiation. The study begins with the icon's development in Byzantium, emerging in the wake of religious conflict, and examines its cultic appropriation in Italy, where it becomes bound to controversy as the Eucharistic vision of Gregory the Great. It culminates in the icon's transformation by Renaissance artists in the sixteenth century, when Reformation critique of cult images as mediators of spiritual presence lay at the center of a crisis that would define modern Europe. By articulating a shared history of spiritual imaging between Byzantium and Italy, my study offers an alternative to canonical narratives of artistic progress that cast them in hierarchical terms, contributing to a reevaluation of Renaissance art history currently underway. Attending closely to the work of images in relation to their viewers-as mediations of presence, beyond their status as representation-the dissertation articulates the mutual interrelation of artistic and cultic functions, integrating realms of study traditionally divided in scholarship. More broadly, by setting Renaissance artworks within a longer historical dynamic of icons and iconoclasm, this study reflects upon the deep structure of tensions regarding images and idolatry that were formative to the thought and culture of early modern Europe, and continue to resonate with force in our day. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Among the pleasures of writing a dissertation is the opportunity it presents to acknowledge the many individuals and institutions that have made it possible. In my own department, I am grateful to Howard Singerman for his unfailing support as Chair and Director of Graduate Studies, as well as to Larry Goedde and Douglas Fordham, his successors. Among the Renaissance faculty, Francesca Fiorani and Cammy Brothers have provided exceptional models of scholarship, teaching and collegiality. I am forever in their debt for the myriad ways in which they have mentored, trained and inspired me. From early on in my project, I benefitted from wide-ranging conversations with David Summers on every conceivable topic. Later, Paul Barolsky stepped up to advise the dissertation that grew out of my ever-expanding interests. Exchange and collaboration with other faculty have nourished me as well, with Dorothy Wong,

David E. Cooper (ed.), A Companion to Aesthetics, 1992

This paper examines the two seemingly opposed forces of iconoclasm and idolatry, positing that the two are not as diametrically opposed as is often understood. Rather, iconoclasm and idolatry are interrelated heresies that revolve around a common axis: an improper relationship with the image, stemming from an inadequate understanding of nature of God. Rather than being polar opposites, the one often evolves into the other; idolatry leads iconoclasm, and iconoclasm to idolatry. This paper will explore how these two forces have shaped the history of the image from the fall of Adam, through the iconoclastic controversy, the reformation, and into the contemporary era.

Entangled Religions, 2023

In this special issue, we explore the role of depictions and images in religious traditions from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, covering a broad spectrum of religious traditions from Asia to Europe. Our focus is on examining the range of religious attitudes towards images, which can range from indifference (aniconism) to admiration (iconism) to outright rejection and destruction (anti-iconism). Our contributors discuss the hypothesis that religious attitudes towards images often fluctuate between these three categories, and that it is not possible to strictly classify a particular religious tradition as either hostile or friendly towards images. This introduction provides an overview of the central and complex concepts that form the basis of the individual contributions, including representation, icons, media and materiality, and an/iconism.

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Sacred images, both in the Western and Eastern traditions, distinguish Christianity in a preponderant way compared to all other religions, especially as regards the Orthodox. The images and symbols describe, in their artistic form, the divine word similar to a "color theology" representing a "window on infinity", as well as reflect "an image of the kingdom of God". Since its origins in Christianity, man has tried to integrate the evangelical announcement, oral and written, through images, for this reason Christian art has initially inherited some typical forms of the Greco-Roman styles, which soon took on their main character. Theological character that we know today as "sacred art", with its own rules and traditions. Sacred art is an integral part of the architecture of churches and places of worship, but not only that, it assumes its role of fundamental support in the liturgy. Art is designed, first, to be "read" and to deduce the theological and spiritual message contained therein; this happens by approaching images, figures, objects and colors, tending to decode the biblical-theological background underlying the expressive potential of visual language, essentially composed of a marked symbolism. Christian art, in its oriental iconographic form, is particularly charged with this symbolism; it represents the vocabulary, grammar and syntax that the iconographer has at his disposal to fit into the constant process of developing a real "living language", that of God. The essay approaches sacred art in an attempt to act as a bridge between West and East from different perspectives: historical, theological, liturgical and artistic; aims to make people familiar with the history of Christian art, and in general with oriental iconographic art, in order to learn the fundamental characteristics of the theology of images, and also to understand the main interpretations for the spiritual life. The essay unfolds on some main axes, at first it examines the characteristics of the history of Western art compared with Eastern iconographic art, including the origin of Christian art and the development of its fundamental characteristics; subsequently he approaches the theology of the icon, studied mainly through iconoclasm, with a particular emphasis on the patristic texts of John Damascene and the declarations of the VII Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 787), as well as the triumph of Orthodoxy (843). Finally, it offers a possible interpretation of iconographic symbolism, with attention to the main types of icons of the Christ Pantocrator, the Acheropita and the Anastasis icon.