No, Orthodox don't worship icons. Don't be ridiculous and insulting. Here's the deal...Do you have a wallet or purse? Open it up. Pull out a photograph of someone. I assume the reason you have that photograph is because you want to remember the subject. Now, let's say in your remembering you are filled with a desire to express your love, honor and veneration by kissing the photo. In your kissing are you thinking about the paper and chemical compounds that make up the ink or are you thinking about the subject that is represented. The subject, of course. In thinking about the subject and in kissing are you worshiping the photo or the person it represents? Of course not. Icons have been referred to as the photo album of the Church. They are venerated not worshiped. They are used in worship as tools of reverence and honor to those who now worship in heaven. Just like in the photo you kissed. And because the Orthodox faith believes the subjects of the icons are still alive and they participate in the worship of heaven near the throne of God, then we can ask them to pray for us. And because the process of salvation or theosis (becoming like God in his attributes, not His essence), continues after we leave this earth, we can pray for them. No, it is not "prayers for the dead", it is prayers for those who have departed this earth and their mortal bodies. The reason venerating icons is so strange to you is that it is new to your experience. The walls of your house may have pictures hanging on them, well so do the walls of the church and they have for 100's of years.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Straight Talk On Icons
No, Orthodox don't worship icons. Don't be ridiculous and insulting. Here's the deal...Do you have a wallet or purse? Open it up. Pull out a photograph of someone. I assume the reason you have that photograph is because you want to remember the subject. Now, let's say in your remembering you are filled with a desire to express your love, honor and veneration by kissing the photo. In your kissing are you thinking about the paper and chemical compounds that make up the ink or are you thinking about the subject that is represented. The subject, of course. In thinking about the subject and in kissing are you worshiping the photo or the person it represents? Of course not. Icons have been referred to as the photo album of the Church. They are venerated not worshiped. They are used in worship as tools of reverence and honor to those who now worship in heaven. Just like in the photo you kissed. And because the Orthodox faith believes the subjects of the icons are still alive and they participate in the worship of heaven near the throne of God, then we can ask them to pray for us. And because the process of salvation or theosis (becoming like God in his attributes, not His essence), continues after we leave this earth, we can pray for them. No, it is not "prayers for the dead", it is prayers for those who have departed this earth and their mortal bodies. The reason venerating icons is so strange to you is that it is new to your experience. The walls of your house may have pictures hanging on them, well so do the walls of the church and they have for 100's of years.
Right on brother! I like the description of icons as "windows": when you wave at a person through a window, you are not waving at the window, but through it. I think I read something about that being why statues are excluded from the Orthodox church: because the three dimensional is not conducive to the "window" concept of "seeing through" as icons are.
ReplyDeleteGreat perspective ANON. I've never heard it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nathan! I could be totally wrong on that. I can't remember where I read that. I think it was in one of my seminary classes...or it might have been in conversation with one of my orthodox friends. Either way, I thought it was really insightful too. I really don't know why it labeled me "anonymous". I thought I was signed in? I guess I'm still learning the blogger thing--ha!
ReplyDelete...or it might have been in Frederica Mathewes Green's book on Icons? I can't remember! Oh well... Blessings...
ReplyDelete