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Early Christian Theology and The Iconoclastic Controversy
Early Christian Theology and The Iconoclastic Controversy
Early Christian Theology and The Iconoclastic Controversy
Controversy
The Iconoclastic periods in Byzantium history (730-787, 813-843) were in many ways a
manifestation of a centuries-long disagreement among various Christian groups as to the
place of art in worship, especially the making of images of Christ and, to a lesser extent, of
Mary and the other saints. Not all Christians approved of the making of images, though
artistic objects become common by the 4th century.
The controversy is sometimes understood as a result of and response to the influence of
Judaism, and later Islam, with their opposition to images, though one should keep in mind
that the extent of that opposition was uniform among neither. Jewish and Islamic influences
were most pronounced in Syria and the Middle East , areas where the Monophysite and
Monoenergist heterodoxies were most entrenched.
The controversy can, therefore, also be understood as the final stage in the Early Christian
theological battles over the nature of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. The key
disagreements among iconoclasts (those who oppose images) and iconodules
(iconophiles, iconographes--those who approve and love images) were expressed in the
concerns and vocabulary of earlier debates about the nature of God and about the
cosubstantial relationship of the Son to the Father. Thus, one can look back to earlier ideas
and debates as the sources for the iconoclastic ones.
The most important questions that the controversy debates are:
What kind of participation is that of the body of Christ in the Word (the Logos)?
What role does the human body of Jesus play in salvation and in the revelation of
the Father's glory?
salvation.
Maximus Confessor
1. In the union of the Logos, one nature never predominates over the other. As a
result, only a hypostatic union of the two natures can preserve the infinite
distance between the divine and the human without the former absorbing the
later.
2. The freedom of the Trinity is marked by mutual self-giving, so the Incarnation is
marked by freedom.
3. Christ is his two natures; he is not other than them. The human existence of
Christ is not absorbed by the divine, but is ever freely resonating with it. Christ
operates in both his natures.
4. To force a union of the two natures compromises their relationship.
5. Human free will points to our destiny with God, but the fall has interrupted this
destiny.
6. In Christ, human free will now again conforms to the divine will and, therefore,
frees the human will to be again the imago dei and thus free for God.
7. The Incarnation is thus an icon of obedience and love, just as love is the icon of
God.
3. Circumscription is not a category of the fall but an aspect of our created reality.
4. Christ's flesh preserves its humanity even in its fully divinized state.
Theodore the Studite (759-826 AD)
1. "The icon of someone does not depict his nature but his person."
2. An icon portrays what is visibly particular about a person; therefore, it mediates the
knowledge of a person's properties. (A middle position between John and
Nicephorus.)
3. Christ is truly a human being only if his humanity is a particular humanity. Christ is
one person with two natures; the human nature is not a separate person, so the
human body reveals the human-divine person of the Logos.
4. The Logos can be circumscribed in the human flesh of Jesus.
5. The original is present in the icon relationally not essentially. An icon is, therefore,
not sacramental in the true sense of the word.
6. To behold Christ will always be a bodily beholding, never a purely "spiritual" one. It
will always be iconic. The Incarnation is not a stage to be got over, but an aspect of
the Logos forever.
7. Icons, like the hearing of scripture, imprint on our souls the nature of Christ. To reject
the icons of Christ is to reject his humility.
This material is gathered from:
Schborn, Christoph. God's Human Face: The Christ-Icon. Trans. Lothar Krauth. San Farancisco: Ignatius P,
1994.
Davis, Leo Donald. The First Seven Ecumenical Councils: Their History and Theology (325-787). Collegeville:
Liturgical P, 1990.
"All manner of thing shall be well/ When the tongues of flame are in-folded/ Into the crowned
knot of fire/ And the fire and the rose are one." -- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding