SOME IMPORTANT NOTES ON THE ORTHODOX THEOLOGY OF ICON (original) (raw)

Icons: the Orthodox Understanding of Images and the Influence on Western Art

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.

The Living Icon: The Apologetic Witness of Byzantine Icons

The conversion of Russia is a story proudly retold by Eastern Orthodox Christians with apologetic fervor, as a testimony to the superiority of their faith over the heterodox denominations. While non-orthodox critics and even some scholars may dismiss the story as either mere propaganda or popular legend, a key observation is often overlooked: the hegemony of beauty within the Eastern Orthodox faith. It is neither logical proof, nor theological disputations, that impress the Prince and his envoys, but beauty. "We cannot forget such beauty" is the report brought back to Prince Vladamir after his envoys visit the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Beauty plays a central role within the life of the Orthodox Church, and icons are its spiritual heart. Icons have apologetic and evangelical power, precisely because they invite their viewers to experience God, to experience their divine origin, and their holy end. Icons connect with viewers on a primordial level, activating archetypal memories of Adam, and the divine genesis of all humanity as beings made in the image of God, living icons of the Creator, and as a royal priesthood for all creation.

THE CANONICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE HOLY TRINITY IN ORTHODOX ICONOGRAPHY

ICOANA CREDINȚEI, 2023

The iconography of the Holy Trinity represents an extremely important issue, considering that the icon must fully express the truth of the Churchʼs faith, and current at the same time, since in church painting we can easily observe deviations from the canon of orthodoxy. That is precisely why, appealing to both the Orthodox and the Catholic bibliography, the present study aims to bring to the attention of theologians, clergy, iconographers and, why not, the laity alike, in a succinct presentation, the question of iconography and, implicitly, of the iconology of the Holy Trinity, to understand which representations are canonical and which are not, to correctly choose the icon of the Holy Trinity that can be painted and honored, in churches or in the home of every Christian.