Icons and the Incarnation: John of Damascus and the Second Council of Nicaea

Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 4.3

What you will learn

• Define icon, veneration, worship and prototype as the Second Council of Nicaea used them.
• Summarize the argument of John of Damascus that the Incarnation makes images lawful.
• Describe the iconoclast controversy in broad outline, with its main dates.
• Explain the arguments on both sides, including the use of Exodus 20:4.

The big idea

Orthodox and Catholic Christians defend sacred images by pointing to the Incarnation. Because the invisible God became visible in Christ (John 1:14; Colossians 1:15), they say, he may be depicted, and honor given to the image passes to the person it shows. The eighth-century iconoclasts, who wanted to destroy images, read the Second Commandment as forbidding them. The Council of Nicaea in 787 sided with the defenders, though the dispute continued until 843. This lesson sets out each argument as its supporters made it.

Key terms

Icon

From the Greek for image. A painted or carved sacred image, most often of Christ, Mary or a saint, used in the devotion of Eastern Christians and many Western ones.

Iconoclasm

From Greek words meaning image-breaking. The movement in the Byzantine Empire that rejected and destroyed sacred images, in two periods: 726 to 787 and 815 to 843.

Iconodule

A defender of icons, from Greek words for servant of the image. The word is used by modern writers.

Veneration (proskynesis)

Honor shown by bowing, kissing or similar gestures. The council taught that it may be given to images.

Worship (latreia)

The adoration that is due to God alone.

Prototype

The person or thing that an image depicts. The honor given to the image is said to pass to its prototype.

Seventh Ecumenical Council

The Council of Nicaea of 787, accepted as ecumenical by the Orthodox and Catholic churches and not by most Protestants.

Background

Christian art appears in the third century, in the catacombs and in the house church at Dura-Europos. In the fourth century some church leaders, such as Eusebius of Caesarea in a letter to Constantia, the emperor’s sister, expressed discomfort with depicting Christ. By the sixth century icons were widespread in the Byzantine world. In 726 or 730 Emperor Leo III began a policy against icons, the exact date and measures of which are debated by historians. A council held at Hieria in 754 under Constantine V condemned images as idols.

The defenders of icons included monks, such as John of Damascus, who lived under Muslim rule at the monastery of Mar Saba, outside the emperor’s reach. His three treatises on images, written about the 730s, became the classic Orthodox defense.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The argument of the iconoclasts

The iconoclasts held that images of God are forbidden by Exodus 20:4 and Deuteronomy 4:15-16, which say that Israel saw no form when God spoke at Horeb. They argued that an image of Christ either separates his human nature from his divine nature, which is the error of Nestorius, or confuses them, which is the error of Eutyches, since the divine cannot be depicted. They also pointed to the dangers of superstition, and the widespread veneration of icons. Many historians add political and social factors, including military defeats and the influence of Islamic and Jewish critics of images. The reasons are debated.

Step 2: The argument of John of Damascus

John replied that the Old Testament prohibition concerned images of the invisible God, who has no form and who forbade images for a people tempted to idolatry. But God, he said, has now become visible. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). John taught that to refuse to depict Christ is to deny the reality of his body. He also pointed out that God himself commanded images of cherubim in the tabernacle (Exodus 25:18-20), so that Scripture did not forbid all images. He distinguished kinds of honor: the worship due to God alone, and the veneration given to saints, to the Cross and to images, in which, he wrote, the honor passes to the prototype. He attributed this last principle to Basil of Caesarea.

Step 3: The Council of 787 and the end of the controversy

The Second Council of Nicaea, held in 787 under Empress Irene, annulled the decisions of Hieria. It decreed that holy images may be set up in churches, on vessels and walls and in houses, and that they should be given salutation and honorable reverence, not true worship, which belongs to God alone. Iconoclasm returned in 815 and ended in 843, when the regent Theodora restored the images. The Orthodox church remembers this as the Triumph of Orthodoxy and celebrates it on the first Sunday of Great Lent.

Step 4: The West and the later debate

The Frankish court did not at first accept Nicaea II. A work called the Libri Carolini, written in the 790s, criticized it, partly because of a faulty Latin translation which made the Greek sound as if it demanded worship of images. The pope had approved the council, and later Latin theologians such as Thomas Aquinas taught that images may be venerated, with the honor passing to what they represent. The Reformers revived the objection. Calvin in the Institutes argued that images of God are forbidden and that images in churches lead to superstition, and the Heidelberg Catechism explains why images should not be made for worship. Lutherans and Anglicans, as the next lesson shows, were generally less strict.

Step 5: Icons and a person at home

In Orthodox homes, icons are placed in a prayer corner and prayed before, usually after being blessed. Orthodox teaching says that an icon is a window and not an object with power of its own, and that its holiness depends on its relation to the person depicted. Catholics may have images and statues in homes in a similar way. Christians whose tradition rejects images may have none, and this is a legitimate conviction. The churches caution that no image works by itself, and that stories of images that act by their own power need to be tested against doctrine.

1. What does this image depict, and what does the tradition say it shows?
2. Is it an image of God the Father, of Christ, or of a saint, and does that change the argument?
3. How does the argument from the Incarnation answer Exodus 20:4?
4. What is the difference between veneration and worship, in the council’s terms?
5. What does the strongest objection say?
6. How should a person at home treat an image, if the tradition uses one?

Examples

Different perspectives

Orthodox

Icons are an expression of the faith in the Incarnation, which is why the church celebrates the victory over iconoclasm as the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Icons are venerated and are part of the church’s tradition and liturgy.

Catholic

Nicaea II is an ecumenical council, and the Council of Trent reaffirmed that images of Christ, Mary and the saints are to be kept and given due honor, with the honor passing to the prototype. Catholic practice includes statues and paintings, though Western art differs in style from Eastern icons.

Lutheran and Anglican

Both allowed images in churches as teaching aids and rejected the worship of images. Luther opposed the iconoclasm of Karlstadt in Wittenberg, and Anglican practice has varied, with some images removed in the sixteenth century and others kept.

Reformed

Images for use in worship are forbidden by the Second Commandment, and Calvin held that the use of images leads to idolatry. Some Reformed traditions allow art outside worship, and some are stricter.

Scholarly

Historians dispute the causes and timeline of the controversy, and some argue that evidence for early iconoclast measures is thin, since most surviving sources were written by victors. They encourage cautious statements.

Why it matters

Icons are central to Orthodox worship and a point of disagreement with many Protestants. Understanding the argument from the Incarnation shows that the dispute is not about whether art is pleasant but about what God’s becoming human implies. A student can then describe both the Orthodox and the Reformed position in terms their members would recognize.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Does the Incarnation make images of Christ lawful, or does it only make them possible?
2. What is the strongest argument for the Reformed objection, and the strongest reply?
3. How can a church guard against treating an image as having power of its own?
4. What would you say to a person who is moved by icons and one who is disturbed by them?

Independent assignment

State both arguments

In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words. State the argument of John of Damascus and the argument of Calvin on images, each in a form that its supporters would accept. Use at least one source from the course library for each. Then list two points on which they actually agree. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study

• John of Damascus, An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith Read the passage on images, if your edition has it.
• Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 14) Read the decree of Nicaea II.
• Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word Read for the doctrine of the Incarnation that the defense relies on.
• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Read the chapter on images in book 1.
• Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, The Heidelberg Catechism Read the questions on the second commandment.
• Exodus 20:4 The prohibition of graven images.
• Exodus 25:18 Cherubim in the tabernacle.
• Colossians 1:15 The image of the invisible God.