On the Holy Icons (Popular Patristics Series)
Overview
To many modern Christians the question of icon veneration may seem a marginal issue in theology. To St Theodore the Studite, writing in the midst of the iconoclastic controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries, it was clear that iconoclasm is a serious error, which alienates its followers from God as much as any other heresy. That is to say, rejection of Christian veneration of images effectively denies God’s incarnation, which alone makes human salvation possible. If Christ could not be portrayed, then He was not truly man, and humanity was not truly united with God in Him. In our own day, when the material world so often is regarded as mere matter, incapable of being transfigured in Christ, St Theodore’s message remains remarkably pertinent.
Top Highlights
“So whether in an image, or in the Gospel, or in the cross, or in any other consecrated object, God is evidently worshipped ‘in spirit and in truth,’ as the materials are exalted by the raising of the mind toward God. The mind does not remain with the materials, because it does not trust in them: that is the error of the idolators. Through the materials, rather, the mind ascends toward the prototypes: this is the faith of the orthodox.” (Page 34)
“If God formerly condescended to be symbolized by a serpent in order to heal those who were bitten, how could it not be pleasing to Him and appropriate to set up the image of the bodily form which has been His since He became man? And if the symbol in animal form cured those who had been bitten by its sight alone, how could the holy representation of Christ’s very form do otherwise than hallow those who see it?” (Page 25)
“The obvious starting point for an attack on icons was (and is) the second commandment, prohibiting graven images.2 The iconoclasts related this prohibition to the invisibility and incomprehensibility of God, referring to the fact that Moses heard God’s voice but saw no form.3 They also claimed that the superiority of spirit to matter made it inappropriate to use material images in spiritual worship. Their disdain for matter suggests that they were influenced as much by pagan neoplatonism as by the Hebrew tradition.” (Page 9)
“The remaining alternative is to say that He is speaking of the form of divinity; and this is true.” (Page 93)
“Theodore argues that Christ can be the prototype of an image because of His humanity.14” (Page 13)
- Title: On the Holy Icons
- Author: Theodore the Studite
- Series: Popular Patristics Series
- Volume: 6
- Publisher: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press
- Print Publication Date: 1981
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Icons › Cult--Early works to 1800
- ISBNs: 9780913836767, 0913836761, 15555755
- Resource ID: LLS:HLYCNSSTHDRSTDT
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:59:26Z
