The Icon: Creation, the Incarnation, and Divinization
St. John of Damascus and the beautiful theology of the icon...
The Icon: Creation, the Incarnation, and Divinization
"Image writing" or iconography is familiar to most Catholics, though its spiritual significance is often overlooked in Roman Catholicism. Iconography is closely connected with Typology, Theology, and especially Christology. In Creation Theology, it’s not just important but essential. What is an icon, and how does iconography relate to Christology and Creation? Let's explore the doctrinal understanding of iconography and its relevance to everyday Catholic life.
St. John of Damascus, in his Apologia Against Those who Decry Holy Images, provides powerful evidence regarding the use of icons in early Christianity. In analyzing St. John of Damascus's arguments, one can examine the main theological themes of his work, including the nature of the image, the distinction between veneration and worship, and the role of icons in catechesis and devotion. This treatise functions both as a theological discussion and an affirmation of the significance of sacred images in the Church.
The Incarnation of Christ, and Images
The notion of the Word becoming flesh, as articulated in John 1:14, serves as a foundational example for utilizing material objects to convey spiritual concepts. St. John of Damascus begins his discourse with a significant theological declaration: the Incarnation of Christ. For St. John, the Incarnation is deemed essential to Christian faith and forms the basis for the veneration of sacred images.
St. John's treatise examines the portrayal of Christ in human form. He argues that it is both appropriate and acceptable to depict Him visually. He explains:
"If, therefore, the Son of God became man, taking the form of a servant, and appearing in man's nature, a perfect man, why should His image not be made? If, in common parlance, the king's image is called the king, and the honour shown to the image redounds to the original, as holy Basil says, why should the image not be honoured and worshipped, not as God, but as the image of God Incarnate?" - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images.
As Christ's physical body was observable and tangible, His likeness can also be depicted in art. Through the Incarnation, Christ has rendered Himself accessible to human perception. According to St. John, denying the legitimacy of images would be akin to denying the reality of the Incarnation itself.
St. John goes further and gives a strong explanation for the use of icons, insisting that matter gives honor to He who made it:
Purple by itself is simple, and so is silk, and the cloak which is made of both. But if the king put it on, the cloak receives honour from the honour due to the wearer. So is it with matter. By itself it is of no account, but if the one presented in image be full of grace, men become partakers of his grace according to their faith. The apostles knew our Lord with their bodily eyes; others knew the apostles, others the martyrs. I, too, desire to see them in the spirit and in the flesh, and to possess a saving remedy as I am a composite being. I see with my eyes, and revere that which represents what I honour, though I do not worship it as God. Now you, perhaps, are superior to me, and are lifted up above bodily things, and being, as it were, not of flesh, you make light of what is visible, but as I am human and clothed with a body, I desire to see and to be corporeally with the saints. Condescend to my humble wish that you may be secure on your heights. God accepts my longing for Him and for His saints.
For He rejoices at the praises of His servant, according to the great St Basil in his panegyric of the Forty Martyrs." - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images.
Spiritually, icons are portals for the one beholding them to enter into the sanctuary of God, not made with human hands. Our God, so in love with man, and His heavens stoop down low in the sweetness and humility of the Incarnation to interact with man throughout all of His Creation that surrounds us, including and especially, through the written images of the Gospel and the lives who lived full of it made by human hands.
The God-Breathed Divine Revelation is transmitted through the written images and portrayals of the Scriptures and the lives of the Saints, becoming portals through which the supurb mystical theology of the Church becomes lively and active within the divine altar of the partaker's mind, and the eyes indulge in the savory feast of sacred science as the divine liturgy is performed within the soul, sending incensed prayers for the nostrils of God to indulge upon in gladness and satisfaction. This experience with the icon brings us into a livelier experience of the Church and the Divine Liturgy in the Kingdom of God, a spiritual and eternal dwelling place, a home in heaven, not built by human hands.
St. John teaches:
"I will not cease from honouring that matter which works my salvation. I venerate it, though not as God. How could God be born out of lifeless things? And if God's body is God by union (καθ υποστασιν), it is immutable.
The nature of God remains the same as before, the flesh created in time is quickened by a logical and reasoning soul. I honour all matter besides, and venerate it. Through it, filled, as it were, with a divine power and grace, my salvation has come to me. Was not the thrice happy and thrice blessed wood of the Cross matter? Was not the sacred and holy mountain of Calvary matter? What of the life-giving rock, the Holy Sepulchre, the source of our resurrection: was it not matter? Is not the most holy book of the Gospels matter? Is not the blessed table matter which gives us the Bread of Life? Are not the gold and silver matter, out of which crosses and altar-plate and chalices are made? And before all these things, is not the body and blood of our Lord matter? Either do away with the veneration and worship due to all these things, or submit to the tradition of the Church in the worship of images, honouring God and His friends, and following in this the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not despise matter, for it is not despicable. Nothing is that which God has made. This is the Manichean heresy. That alone is despicable which does not come from God, but is our own invention, the spontaneous choice of will to disregard the natural law,—that is to say, sin." - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images
Latria and Dulia
An important part of St. John's treatise is his explanation of the distinction between veneration (dulia) and worship (latria). The Iconoclasts argued that worshipping images could lead to idolatry by confusing dulia with latria due to their material nature. St. John countered this, asserting that venerating icons honors God through His Revelation and actions depicted, not improper worship of the material object or even the persons depicted.
Catholic theology distinguishes between different types of worship. Latria is the worship reserved for the Most Holy Trinity alone. Hyperdulia is the veneration given to Mary, the Mother of God, while dulia refers to the veneration directed towards saints and angels. Although Catholics give latria exclusively to God, we also venerate Mary, saints, and angels in different ways.
He states:
"The worship of latria is one thing, and the worship which is given to merit another.
Now, as we are talking of images and worship, let us analyse the exact meaning of each. An image is a likeness of the original with a certain difference, for it is not an exact reproduction of the original. Thus, the Son is the living, substantial, unchangeable Image of the invisible God (Col.1.15), bearing in Himself the whole Father, being in all things equal to Him, differing only in being begotten by the Father, who is the Begetter; the Son is begotten. The Father does not proceed from the Son, but the Son from the Father. It is through the Son, though not after Him, that He is what He is, the Father who generates. In God, too, there are representations and images of His future acts,—that is to say, His counsel from all eternity, which is ever unchangeable. That which is divine is immutable; there is no change in Him, nor shadow of change. (James 1.17) Blessed Denis, (the Carthusian [i.e., Pseudo-Dionysius]) who has made divine things in God's presence his study, says that these representations and images are marked out beforehand. In His counsels, God has noted and settled all that He would do, the unchanging future events before they came to pass. In the same way, a man who wished to build a house would first make and think out a plan. Again, visible things are images of invisible and intangible things, on which they throw a faint light. Holy Scripture clothes in figure God and the angels, and the same holy man (Blessed Denis) explains why. When sensible things sufficiently render what is beyond sense, and give a form to what is intangible, a medium would be reckoned imperfect according to our standard, if it did not fully represent material vision, or if it required effort of mind. If, therefore, Holy Scripture, providing for our need, ever putting before us what is intangible, clothes it in flesh, does it not make an image of what is thus invested with our nature, and brought to the level of our desires, yet invisible? A certain conception through the senses thus takes place in the brain, which was not there before, and is transmitted to the judicial faculty, and added to the mental store. Gregory, who is so eloquent about God, says that the mind, which is set upon getting beyond corporeal things, is incapable of doing it. For the invisible things of God since the creation of the world are made visible through images. (Rom.12 1.20) We see images in creation which remind us faintly of God, as when, for instance, we speak of the holy and adorable Trinity, imaged by the sun, or light, or burning rays, or by a running fountain, or a full river, or by the mind, speech, or the spirit within us, or by a rose tree, or a sprouting flower, or a sweet fragrance." - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images
Christians use images to show respect and reverence for the figures they represent, God the Father, the Holy Ghost, Christ, the Virgin Mary, or the saints and angels. St. John explains that an icon functions as a symbol directing focus to the divine reality it signifies, rather than serving as an idol. Worship (latria) is reserved solely for God, and this veneration should not be confused with idolatrous worship of the object itself.
Also, St. John of Damascus defends the icons from Sacred Scripture:
"They err truly, not knowing the Scriptures, for the letter kills whilst the spirit quickens—not finding in the letter the hidden meaning. I could say to these people, with justice, He who taught you this would teach you the following. Listen to the law-giver's interpretation in Deuteronomy:
"And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the voice of His words, but you saw not any form at all." (Deut. 4.12) And shortly afterwards: "Keep your souls carefully. You saw not any similitude in the day that the Lord God spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest perhaps being deceived you might make you a graven similitude, or image of male and female, the similitude of any beasts that are upon the earth, or of birds that fly under heaven." (Deut. 4.15–17) And again, "Lest, perhaps, lifting up thy eyes to heaven, thou see the sun and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error thou adore and serve them." (Deut. 4.19) You see the one thing to be aimed at is not to adore a created thing more than the Creator, nor to give the worship of latreia except to Him alone. By worship, consequently, He always understands the worship of latreia. For, again, He says: "Thou shalt not have strange gods other than Me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor any similitude. Thou shalt not adore them, and thou shalt not serve them, for I am the Lord thy God." (Deut. 5.7–9) And again, "Overthrow their altars, and break down their statues; burn their groves with fire, and break their idols in pieces. For thou shalt not adore a strange god." (Deut. 12.3) And a little further on: "Thou shalt not make to thyself gods of metal." (Ex. 34.17)
You see that He forbids image-making on account of idolatry, and that it is impossible to make an image of the immeasurable, uncircumscribed, invisible God. You have not seen the likeness of Him, the Scripture says, and this was St Paul's testimony as he stood in the midst of the Areopagus:
"Being, therefore, the offspring of God, we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, the graving of art, and device of man." (Acts 17.29) These injunctions were given to the Jews on account of their proneness to idolatry. Now we, on the contrary, are no longer in leading strings. Speaking theologically, it is given to us to avoid superstitious error, to be with God in the knowledge of the truth, to worship God alone, to enjoy the fulness of His knowledge. We have passed the stage of infancy, and reached the perfection of manhood. We receive our habit of mind from God, and know what may be imaged and what may not. The Scripture says, "You have not seen the likeness of Him." (Ex. 33.20) What wisdom in the law-giver. How depict the invisible? How picture the inconceivable? How give expression to the limitless, the immeasurable, the invisible? How give a form to immensity? How paint immortality?
How localise mystery? It is clear that when you contemplate God, who is a pure spirit, becoming man for your sake, you will be able to clothe Him with the human form. When the Invisible One becomes visible to flesh, you may then draw a likeness of His form. When He who is a pure spirit, without form or limit, immeasurable in the boundlessness of His own nature, existing as God, takes upon Himself the form of a servant in substance and in stature, and a body of flesh, then you may draw His likeness, and show it to anyone willing to contemplate it. Depict His ineffable condescension, His virginal birth, His baptism in the Jordan, His transfiguration on Thabor, His all-powerful sufferings, His death and miracles, the proofs of His Godhead, the deeds which He worked in the flesh through divine power, His saving Cross, His Sepulchre, and resurrection, and ascent into heaven. Give to it all the endurance of engraving and colour. Have no fear or anxiety;worship is not all of the same kind." - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images(675-749 AD)
St. John’s Defense of Icons from Tradition
St. John defends Iconography from the ecclesiastical Tradition handed down throughout the centruries:
"Yet we truly worship the physical death of our God and His saving sufferings. We adore Thy image and all that is Thine; Thy servants, Thy friends, and most of all Thy Mother, the Mother of God.
We beseech, therefore, the people of God, the faithful flock, to hold fast to the ecclesiastical traditions. The gradual taking away of what has been handed down to us would be undermining the foundation stones, and would in no short time overthrow the whole structure." - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images.
St. John’s treatise is full of teaching and commentary from the Early Fathers, as well as from the witness of ecclesiastical Tradition. He emphasizes that this Tradition is not to be ignored, abandoned, or interfered with. It is made quite obvious that Tradition held the utmost authority in the early historical Catholic Church, as it remains so to this day:
"We will not allow the king's commands to overturn the tradition handed down from the fathers. It is not for pious kings to overturn ecclesiastical boundaries. These are not patristic ways.
Things done by force are impositions, and do not carry persuasion. A proof of this was given in the 2nd Council of Ephesus, when a decree, which has never been recognised as valid, was enforced by the emperor's hand, and blessed Flavian was put to death. Councils do not belong to kings, as the Lord says: "Wherever one or two are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them." (Mt. 18.20) Christ did not give to kings the power to bind and to loose, but to the apostles, (Mt. 18.18) and to their successors and pastors and teachers. "If an angel were to teach you a different gospel to what you have received,"St Paul says—but we will be silent about what follows, in the hope of their conversion. And if we find the warning disregarded, which may God avert, we will then add the rest. Let us hope it will not be needed." - St. John of Damascus, Against Those who Decry Holy Images.
The Significance of Against Those Who Decry Holy Images
St. John of Damascus's Against Those Who Decry Holy Images is a foundational text in the theology of icons and the broader doctrinal teachings of the Church. St. John asserts that the veneration of icons substantiates the Incarnation, serves as a means for sanctification and education of the faithful, and maintains an essential connection to the Church's tradition. St. John, through his advocacy for the use of images, asserts that it is possible to perceive and engage with the divine within the material world. This theological and spiritual perspective has profoundly influenced Christian devotion to Christ and the saints. His arguments significantly influenced the resolution of the Iconoclastic Controversy and remain influential in contemporary Christian theology, and Christocentric spirituality.
Ultimately, St. John's theological justification for the use of images transcends discussions of art or liturgy; it serves as a defense of the essential nature of Christianity, which is rooted in the reality of God incarnating into the world through Jesus Christ. Icons serve as an essential way that Christians are able to interact and experience the goodness and blessings of almighty God, as well as to increase in their spirituality and divine incarnation.
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