“Since I’m Presbyterian, I’m an iconoclast and I don’t believe in paintings of Jesus,” professed Redeemed Zoomer, Calvinist Gen Z-er, on X. While Christian’s iconoclast views may be consistent with their Church founders and leaders like Calvin and the participants of the Synod of Elvira, the theory directly rejects major tenets of the Christian faith while Catholicism lifts them up.
Humans’ abilities of consciousness, language, and creativity were gifted by God Himself for the specific reason of being able to participate in His creation. In Genesis, Adam represents the nature in which all humans are made. He named the animals because he used his gifts to understand God’s creation. This allusion is not to deem the animals, or Adam’s naming them as iconography. It simply shows God’s inherent intent in bestowing consciousness, language, and creativity upon us is because He wants us to create beauty that puts people closer to Him.
In Catholicism’s recognition of God’s purpose granting humans these gifts, it fully recognizes icons’ validity. Additionally, by accepting the fact that although faith first manifests itself in the form of pure thought, it is strengthened by human creation. Essentially, iconoclasm stems from the idea that humans are beings purely concerned with the business of the mind, and that creations of the hand act as supplements, not complements to abstract thought. However, iconoclasm ignores two major icons that have forever been used by all Christians. Music and the Church.
The Definitional Issue
Christian iconoclasm's condemnation of visual creations puts into question music’s status as an icon. For an iconoclast to denounce Christian imagery on a Saturday, only to attend a church on Sunday which uses music to convey the message of the mass is simply well-intentioned, (though misinformed) hypocrisy.
Music has an equal, if not more magnitudinal impact on humans’ meditation on the Christian mysteries, and is once again, created by and experienced through the gifts God bestowed upon us. Understandably, it is not considered an icon because while one sees lyrics, notes, or a piano, the music itself is invisible. However, its essence remains the same as the material icons loathed by iconoclasts. Music serves to further beautify the Christian faith, helping bring God’s will to a more intelligible level for people to understand.
Qualification Issue:
In an attempt to fully understand what iconoclasts are against, it is also necessary to ask the question: What qualifies as art? Even sensible Protestant theology accepts its churches’ status as a major pillar of the faith, although it is a considerably weaker point of emphasis when compared to Catholicism. This begs the question: Why do iconoclastic Protestants exclude their respective churches when it comes to defining iconoclastic limits?
Following the Church to its point of conception, Ephesians 2:19-22 states “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Simply put, not only does the Church act as the House of God, but it embodies a part of His kingdom on Earth. In other words, the Church is a concrete institution espoused by the Son.
The Church is a biblically significant human interpretation of God’s kingdom. God never conjured a church according to His own will, as Jesus never built one with His own hands. Architecture is art, the nasty “a-word” iconoclasts are against. Of course, in the Bible religious places of worship were inspired by God’s word, as in Matthew, when Jesus said he would be “able to destroy the temple of God, and…rebuild it in three days” (26:61), but it is this “contradiction” that makes churches symbols of God’s kingdom. Jesus claiming he will rebuild the temple, is him meaning that he is the true temple, and any other structure is merely a human interpretation of his love. Iconoclasm’s apotheosis would be the abolition of the symbolic, artistic expression of a material church, something all Christians hold dear.
It has been theorized by many that icons are windows to Heaven, visual interpretations of the faith professed by all Christians. Protestant’s sola fide clause seems to translate into how to live out one’s faith as well as their salvation theory. Iconoclasm ties neatly into this by claiming that Christianity is worse off with the use of visual aid to help comprehend such transcendental ideas. As kindergarten students use red and yellow “counters” to help with simple mathematics, Christians are better off using icons to comprehend the Christian mysteries, and the simple presence of an icon does not guarantee idolatry.
Add comment
Comments