Statuary and Icons ... Essential Imagery

A Cloud of Witnesses

December 13th

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1

I remember the words of Dr. Kenneth Jones, one of my theology professors, when I come across the word "therefore". His counsel was to always ask, “What is the word “therefore” there for?” In this case, “therefore” follows a detailed listing of faithful ones who are introduced by the words, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. For by this the ancients obtained a testimony." Hebrews 11:1-2

The Douay-Rheims translation, an authorized translation of the Scriptures into the English language by the Catholic Church before the famous 1611 King James became the bible of the Church of England, renders Hebrews 12:1 to say, “And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us.” Not only does this lend credence to the concept of the communion of saints professed in the Apostle’s Creed, it also indicates that we, as Christians, are engaged in an already proposed combat for our eternal souls.

The cloud of witnesses over our heads has grown exponentially since the writer of Hebrews penned those words. Though we are not able to see them on the other side of the transparent veil that separates us, it is important to remember that the ancient ones and this vast cloud of additional witnesses are watching and praying for us. It is important to remember that our progress on this field of combat is not only being monitored. It is also being recorded.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up their dead that were in them; and they were judged every one according to their works. And hell and death were cast into the pool of fire. This is the second death. [Revelation 20:12-14]

That we are being observed by not only Christ, his Father, and the Holy Spirit but by every holy soul in heaven is a real eye-opening life-changer.

My own upbringing and former life as a Protestant did not allow room for holy objects of religious imagery unless they were a reproduction of Sallman’s Head of Christ or a bare cross. It was only after the turn of the millennium that I began to discover the immense value of religious statuary and icons as aids and vehicles leading toward and carrying me into my devotion to and worship of God.

The word “icon” refers to different things today. We use this word to refer to the small graphic symbols in our computer software. We apply the word, as well, to powerful cultural figures. These modern usages do not accurately mirror the original usage of the word. “Icon” is Greek for “image” or “painting” and during the medieval era, this meant a religious image on a wooden panel used for prayer and devotion.

Open hostility toward religious representations began in 726 when Emperor Leo III publicly took a position against icons. This resulted in their removal from churches and their destruction. There had been other theological disputes over visual representations, their theological foundations and legitimacy. However, none of these caused the tremendous social, political and cultural upheaval of what is known as the Iconoclastic Controversy.

Some historians believe that the prohibition of icons imposed by the Emperor was an attempt to unify the empire by integrating Muslim and Jewish populations. Both Muslims and Jews perceived Christian images, something that existed from the earliest times of Christianity, as idols and in direct opposition to the Old Testament prohibition of visual representations.

The original theological basis for the opposition was a weak one. The arguments relied mostly on the Old Testament prohibition. But it was clear that this prohibition was not absolute since God also instructs how to make three dimensional representations of the Cherubim (heavenly spirits or angels) for the Ark of the Covenant, which is also quoted in the Old Testament, just a couple of chapters after the passage that prohibits images (Exodus 25:18-20).

The Second Council of Nicaea, recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, on October 13, 787 decreed that venerable and holy images are to be dedicated in the holy churches of God, namely the image of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our immaculate Lady the holy Theotokos, and of the angels and all the saints. They are to be accorded the veneration of honor, not indeed the true worship paid to the divine nature alone, but in the same way as this is accorded to the life-giving cross, the holy gospels, and other sacred offerings' (trans. Price, The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea [Liverpool 2018], 564-5, abbreviated).

[Icon of Christ Pantocrator ... Almighty or All-Powerful. This image was painted in the Hagia Sophia which was opened in 537 AD as a Christian Church in what is now modern Turkey. In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque. In 1935 the secular Turkish Republic established it as a museum. In 2020, it re-opened as a mosque.]