Post by Soulfyre on Mar 21, 2005 21:57:07 GMT -5
Among the Orthodox Christians, iconography is integral to the faith. It is also one of the most misunderstood practices among those unfamiliar Orthodox Christianity. Often they are compared with the statuary utilized within Roman Catholicism, and their use is assumed to be similar. The icons of the Orthodox Church, often referred to as "windows to heaven", are first and foremost pedagogical tools, both in their formation and in their use. Their meticulous, highly stylized representations are always illustrative of doctrinal verities accepted within Orthodox Christianity, and may be used, even among the illiterate, to teach Christian truth. As such, they are not simply the tools of the faithful, but are also missional.
Created in the image of God, humankind communicates through a spectrum of sensory impressions. As God communicates to us, we communicate to others. And certainly, God did not retrict Himself to verbal communication. If He had, surely we could have expected a more detailed "user's manual" of the faith. But God chose to communicate through His creation and through the innate "mannishness" of man (the image of God, often expressed as the "conscience", by which the work of the law is written even on the heart of the unbeliever, although I believe it also extends to our innate self-knowledge), which means are often referred to as "general" or "universal" revelation. And God chose to communicate through His "special" revelation to unique indivuals, sovereignly chosen by God to become conduits of His specific redemptive plan. To these, God communicated by words, visions, and dreams. To these He revealed His covenant, His name, His worship, and His kingdom. And through them, in image, liturgy, life, and word, God's people were made a vehicle of blessing to the world.
The culmination of God's chosen people was the Virgin Mary, whom all people would call blessed, and through whose obedience all people on earth would be blessed, as promised first to Eve, and then fulfilled in promise to Abraham and the Partiarchs. She is the one among God's people who would be the Second Eve, the first to be redeemed by Jesus Christ, the one who said to God, "I am the handmaided of the Lord. Be it unto me as you have said," the human temple in whom dwelt the very Glory of God, the one whose womb sheltered clothed the Infinite Eternal God, God the Son, the Word of God, in our humanity. And the culmination, the final and perfect revelation of God to man, the Second Adam, the very Image of God, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in bodily form, was, is, and always will be Jesus Christ. Yet too often, we attempt to restrict the work of Jesus Christ to His atoning sacrifice on the cross, as though His life and teaching were incidental to His death and resurrection. But in Jesus Christ, our High Priest, the sacramentality of creation was restored to such as believed in Him, who accept not only His redemption, but His Lordship, accompanying faith in Him with obedience to Him (a "lively" faith).
Because all of creation groans, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God, all of creation is within the scope of God's redemptive plan. As Christians, we may again approach God's creation sacramentally, to administer it with care, to restore and defend its beauty, and to use it for its purpose--to glorify God in all His works. The painting of icons, in which a simple piece of wood is rendered artitically to proclaim the glory of God is illustrative of this emphasis on our restoration of creation to the Lordship of Christ, as a priesthood of believers. Having offered ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, we in turn offer that which God first entrusted to Adam back to God. Orthodoxy strives to perform this simple obedience to God in all things, by displaying the glory of God in architecture, music, art, worship, and the lives of believers.
In this thread, I hope to introduce some of this tradition to you.
In Christ,
Matthew (soulfyre)
Created in the image of God, humankind communicates through a spectrum of sensory impressions. As God communicates to us, we communicate to others. And certainly, God did not retrict Himself to verbal communication. If He had, surely we could have expected a more detailed "user's manual" of the faith. But God chose to communicate through His creation and through the innate "mannishness" of man (the image of God, often expressed as the "conscience", by which the work of the law is written even on the heart of the unbeliever, although I believe it also extends to our innate self-knowledge), which means are often referred to as "general" or "universal" revelation. And God chose to communicate through His "special" revelation to unique indivuals, sovereignly chosen by God to become conduits of His specific redemptive plan. To these, God communicated by words, visions, and dreams. To these He revealed His covenant, His name, His worship, and His kingdom. And through them, in image, liturgy, life, and word, God's people were made a vehicle of blessing to the world.
The culmination of God's chosen people was the Virgin Mary, whom all people would call blessed, and through whose obedience all people on earth would be blessed, as promised first to Eve, and then fulfilled in promise to Abraham and the Partiarchs. She is the one among God's people who would be the Second Eve, the first to be redeemed by Jesus Christ, the one who said to God, "I am the handmaided of the Lord. Be it unto me as you have said," the human temple in whom dwelt the very Glory of God, the one whose womb sheltered clothed the Infinite Eternal God, God the Son, the Word of God, in our humanity. And the culmination, the final and perfect revelation of God to man, the Second Adam, the very Image of God, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in bodily form, was, is, and always will be Jesus Christ. Yet too often, we attempt to restrict the work of Jesus Christ to His atoning sacrifice on the cross, as though His life and teaching were incidental to His death and resurrection. But in Jesus Christ, our High Priest, the sacramentality of creation was restored to such as believed in Him, who accept not only His redemption, but His Lordship, accompanying faith in Him with obedience to Him (a "lively" faith).
Because all of creation groans, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God, all of creation is within the scope of God's redemptive plan. As Christians, we may again approach God's creation sacramentally, to administer it with care, to restore and defend its beauty, and to use it for its purpose--to glorify God in all His works. The painting of icons, in which a simple piece of wood is rendered artitically to proclaim the glory of God is illustrative of this emphasis on our restoration of creation to the Lordship of Christ, as a priesthood of believers. Having offered ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, we in turn offer that which God first entrusted to Adam back to God. Orthodoxy strives to perform this simple obedience to God in all things, by displaying the glory of God in architecture, music, art, worship, and the lives of believers.
In this thread, I hope to introduce some of this tradition to you.
In Christ,
Matthew (soulfyre)
