THE ICON OR THE THERAPY THROUGH IMAGE

Series Byzantina, 2009

Icons and the Liturgy, East and West

Identity and Dialogue. Religious and Philosophical Studies (RKS III), 2021

The icon is not an idol. The Church has always struggled with the ideologies foreign to Christianity, which still try to influence or even to press the Christians, by detours, to get rid of the apparent „remnants of idolatrous paganism”. The current dogmatic principles of the two branches of apostolic authenticity - the Church of the East and the Church of the West – emphasize, with the strength of divinehuman authority, that icons are part of the Christian life, insofar as the Christian life is essentially embedded or - rather - circumscribed into the icon. The absolute difference between the Christian icon and the pagan idolatry lies in the fact that the idol is perceived as the human representation of the immanent forces of nature while, on the contrary, the icon is the divine and holy conceptualization of the supernatural reality of God revealed to the world in order to transfigure it, to restore it and – most of all – to deify it by resemblance, through the perpetual communion of the uncreated grace.

2013

The icon is the legacy of Byzantium (AD 330–1453), the Christian, East Roman Empire governed from Constantinople. In Greek the word eikon simply means “image,” and today it is usually understood to mean an abstract religious portrait painted in egg tempera on a gold-covered wooden board (Figure 9.1). But an icon could also be a mosaic, or even a coin; it could be elaborate or simple, one of a kind or mass produced (Weitzmann, 1978, 13 ff.). What defi ned an icon in Byzantium was neither medium nor style, but rather how the image was used, and especially, what people believed it to be. An icon was, and in the Orthodox Church remains, a devotional image, one deserving special reverence and respect (Byzantine Art, 1964, 269). This is so because an icon is believed to be a holy image, one which literally shares in the sanctity of the fi gure whose likeness it bears. The accepted Orthodox view was succinctly stated nearly twelve centuries ago by St. Theodore the Studite (Mango, 1972, 173):

There has been something of a 'visual turn' in both contemporary theology and philosophy and part of that turn has been the recovery or reassessment of the iconology that has been present in the Christian East for some time. This has meant a recovery of the ecclesial icon and new explorations of its relevance for theology and visual theory today. Yet the icon is more than the historical precursor to subsequent arts. For Christians, it is the image par excellence—an image set apart. In what follows I will briefly discuss how three thinkers, Cornelia Tsakiridou, Pavel Florensky, and Jean-Luc Marion show in similar and dissimilar ways how it is that the icon enjoys the status of being the "exemplary image."

Altarul Reîntregirii, 2017

As visible manifestations of the eschatological realm in the liturgical practice of the Church, the symbol and the icon belong to the empirical world, and their characteristic note is given by their correlation with the transcendence. By the agency of the Holy Spirit, the two become environments through which Christ reveals His presence and saving actions in the Church. They both unveil and shroud, at the same time, the novel reality of the Aeon to come, for in this world "we know only in part", in such a manner, so as to make the man crave eschatological perfection. Both the icon and the symbol engage the human spirit in its wholeness, which in turn requires a certain degree of ascesis and spiritual delicacy in order to perceive their message. The liturgical symbol is both an "icon" of the economy of salvation and an "icon" of the world to come. During the Holy Liturgy, everything becomes a window to the eschatological realm, all the painted icons and the liturgical rituals point to the mystical Eucharistic Reality, the warrant of our future wholeness.

Art and Theology in Ecumenical Perspective, edited by Timothy Verdon, Mount Tabor Books/ Paraclet Press/Mandragola, Florence (Italy)- Brewster MA (USA), 110-116, 2019

The object of the following considerations is a particular aspect of the theology of icons: whether these or di not have a sacramental character. The issue is studied particularly in B.Bobrinskoy and O, Clément.

2017

In a postmodern world which hosts a mix of cultural values, Sacred Art brings into focus the sublimation of the form of representation. This makes Sacred Art a core value in the cultural-artistic rethinking and in the visual practice. On the other hand, in its relationship to society, the moral component supported by Sacred Art in Christianity represents a core value which offers cultural and artistic rethinking and visual practice a chance for spiritual revigoration. For over two decades, the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” in Iaşi has shaped and developed artistic and heritage preservation skills to generations of students educated to protect the Chruch Heritage and revive Sacred Art. The study of art history involeved in this process brings in signs of the sacred from around the world which show a constancy in their choice of location, shape and their function of signalling the presence of the sacred, which relies on their aesthetic component. Sacred Art...

Religion, 2017

Beginning with a definition of the sacred as a twofold process of making things special, which consists of accentuation and affiliation, this essay proceeds to argue that things are made sacred in devotional piety and in fine art in parallel ways that configure images within webs of agents. The two kinds of imagery perform in practices of sacralization that move toward different ends. The production of aura is at work in each case, but operates with distinct aims. The essay then presents a historical account of fine art as a modern development tied to the rise of the nation-state, in which secularization extended to making art independent of religious institutions and patrons, allowing it to develop in a way that should be distinguished from devotional imagery. This does not mean that religion withers in the modern era, but that art developed its own mode of sacralization.

EGO-European History Online, 2019

The word "icon" (and the adjective "iconic") is not an unfamiliar concept to the contemporary reader. It is used to denote things like the "icons" of our pop-culture (i.e. "stars") or the "icons" that we find on our computer screens. Although the meaning of these "icons" is different from the way this concept is used in Christian art and theology, it is not completely unrelated to the ancient connotations of the term "icon/iconic". Both in its Christian and in the pop-cultural contexts the "icon" implies a specific relationship between the spectator, the image (visual medium), and the message (i.e. the "original") that the medium/image communicates. This article primarily examines the Orthodox Christian understanding of the image (icon) and its function within the context of the Orthodox Church and her theology. Based on this, the article also explains the aesthetic elements of traditional Orthodox Christian iconography in connection with the complex web of mutual exchanges and influences (both theological and visual/stylistic) between Orthodox Christianity and Western European religious and artistic tradition.

A general introduction to iconography, what sort of art it is and its relationship to spirituality and liturgy.

2010

https://www.edizioni-santantonio.com/catalogue/details/it/978-613-8-39420-4/via-pulchritudinis

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.

Revista română de Studii Eurasiatice, 2017

The icon has a complex language because it embraces, but also pivots around it, an iconic theophany or sacred imagery and an inexpressible wealth of symbolic valences; is the revelation, word, and epiphanic anamnesis of acts of redemption, producing a theological and perhaps artistic excitement in the person who worship it, even if it is not its purpose, giving it a profound liturgical purpose and creating that mysterium fascinans. The icon is God's encounter with man, uncreated energies with nature, convergence, or interpenetration between eternal and ephemeral. Here it is fully seen how between the word and the image there is a complementary relationship in the proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Rezumat. Icoana are un limbaj complex, deoarece înglobează, dar și pivotează în jurul ei, o teofanie iconică sau o imagistică sacră și o bogăție inexprimabilă de valențe simbolice; este revelație, cuvânt și anamneză epifanică a actelor redemtorii, producând o emoție teologică și, posibil, una artistică în persoana care o venerează, chiar dacă nu acesta este scopul ei, acordându-i un scop profund liturgic și creând acel mysterium fascinans. Icoana este întâlnirea lui Dumnezeu cu omul, a energiilor necreate cu natura, o convergență sau o întrepătrundere între etern și efemer. Aici se vede pe deplin cum între cuvânt şi imagine există o relaţie de complementaritate în vestirea Evangheliei lui Hristos.