miracles and images - chapter 2, a dual quarrel of images on the middle volga

Question 1

setting

Answer 1

• Republic of Marii El in the Volga region of the Russian Federation. protestant Xians are new and growing
• Focus is on how prayers are directed, rather than who they are addressed
• Orthodox Xians’ use of icons is what distinguishes them, rather than who they are praying to
  o For orthodox theology, there is a key distinction between prototype and image
  ♣ According to St John of Damascus, ‘God first formed images in his mind of the things and beings he was going to create (conceptual images), then created humankind in his own likeness (image as imitation)’ (57)
• Second Nicaean Council of 787 defended veneration of images – Orthodox clergy emphasise this

Question 2

difference between Xian veneration and pagan deification

Answer 2

o ‘the difference between proper Christian veneration and ‘Greek’ or pagan deification of images…depends on the idea that icon portraits render visible a world of invisible ‘prototypes’’ (58)
o Orthodox emphasises ‘the distinction between material image and spiritual prototype’
♣ Reflects Western Xian narratives, especially post-Ref
o However…need to look at how Xianity engaged with the material world under alternative guises

Question 3

hans belting

Answer 3

♣ Looks at emergence of Western art
♣ Image (what is represented) is independent of the picture (material manifestation of this representation)
♣ Focuses on Byzantine icon
‘according to Belting, Christian art took shape at a time when a historically more common understanding of images as sites of presence was encountering a new understanding emerging in the Greek ecumene, of images as visual representations of a reality in which they did not themselves participate’ (59
• in Byzantine theology, ‘the icon is necessary to the worshipper because it is an index of the presence of God’s grace, but the worshipper is also enjoined to remember constantly that the source of this grace is God, not the image itself’ (59)

Question 4

polemical liturgies

Answer 4

o venerate but do not worship icons in Orthodox churches
o feast day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, every year on first Sunday of Lent in memory of end of iconoclasm in 843
♣ ‘anathemas are pronounced over all the ancient heresies and in contemporary Russia also over Baptists…neo-pagans’ etc. (61)
o ‘the iconoclastic controversy is thus placed in a larger narrative of perpetual danger to the church from various false teachings, and icon veneration comes to stand metonymically for faithful adherence to Orthodoxy, while the miracles worked through icons over the centuries serve as evidence of the ongoing presence of the grace of God in the church’ (62)
o ‘the liturgy of the Triumph of Orthodoxy dramatises concern not only about people who mistake the object that prayers are directed onto for the addressee of the prayer, but also about those who reject mediating objects altogether’ (62)

Question 5

contemporary critiques - protestant

Answer 5

o Biblical texts state that one should avoid contact with sinners (Matt 18:15-17)
o But in Marii El, the Orthodox encounter pagans and unbelievers (Protestants who do not adhere to icon veneration)
o Protestants find icon veneration idolatrous and polytheistic – who is being worshipped?
o Prots accuse Orthodox of confusing medium with divine source of power

Question 6

contemporary critiques - pagan

Answer 6

o Pagans accuse Orthodox of distinguishing medium from divine source of power too much
♣ Gods can be experienced in nature
♣ ‘from this point of view, the icon becomes at best an unnecessary addition to places that are already inherently sacred, at worst a weapon of hostile takeover by the church’ (63)

Question 7

pagan vs. port critique

Answer 7

o ‘while both pagans and Protestants criticise the Orthodox for worshipping man-made things instead of going directly to sources of divine power, they each do so from a different side of the fine line between idolatry and iconoclasm’ (64)
o for Prots, using ions = dangerous and blasphemous
o for pagans, sacred places/foods etc. have inherently divine qualities.

Question 8

echoes of soviet science in understanding of icons - protestant critique

Answer 8

o Protestant critique gains legitimacy in Soviet educational institutions. Also reflected in Orthodox response
o Soviet atheist campaigns
o ‘the fact that virtually everyone alive in Marii El today went through an educational system that stressed that nothing I the world happens without a scientific explanation means that today there is a large number of people for whom the way in which icons accomplish the effects ascribed to them is problematic’ (64)
o Soviets argued for icons as self-deceptive
o They also argue that icons are visually constructed to be appealing – colourful and shiny etc.
♣ ‘visual impressions are important in forming convictions’ (65)

Question 9

echoes of soviet science in understanding of icons - orthodox response and protestant rejection of visual aids

Answer 9

o however, Orthodox response = ‘uncontrolled visual imagination that leads to idolatry, whereas icons with their canonically sanctioned conventions restrain idolatrous impulses’ (66)
o limit to Protestant rejection of ‘visual aids’
♣ A commercially produced map of the city with the heading ‘God Loves the City of Ioshkar-Ola’
♣ Hung from loundspeakers on stage, people stretched out arms to it when praying
♣ ‘like an icon, a map is considered to be a faithful representation whose accuracy is partly assured through resemblance to the physical shape of the prototype’ (67)
proves that religious practice without any visual representation = hard

Question 10

beyond visual interactions general

Answer 10

o Orthodox priests raised awareness of risk of conflating material with immediate sources of grace
o People confuse the symbolic significance of icons/practice with the concrete acts involved
o People display a consumerist attitude to blessings of church via. Icons
o Parallels Orthodox criticism of pagans
o Shows a concern with the church as an institution – need to stress that reverence re. icons should not be conflated with immediate grace

Question 11

o Procession with the Smolensk icon of Mother of God in Marii El - general

Answer 11

♣ Villagers greet icon as guest
♣ Crouch down in front of icon
♣ ‘the treatment of icons as persons blurs distinctions between visual and nonvisual qualities of images’ (70)

Question 12

o Procession with the Smolensk icon of Mother of God in Marii El - resemblances across different layers of christian community

Answer 12

o iconic resemblances across different layers of Xian community
♣ woman filling out forms for state pension
♣ sees an old woman that looks like St Matrona
♣ goes to confession and prays to St Matrona
♣ pension comes through
o similarly seen in priests, who are treated as images of JC – people kiss the priest’s hand etc.
o many families have icon corners in their household – usually shielded with curtain. Opening curtain = love for prototype
o even unbaptised Mari have icons in their homes

Question 13

o Procession with the Smolensk icon of Mother of God in Marii El - limit to use of icons

Answer 13

o although some don’t have any icons at all
♣ one family had curtain with no icon behind it
♣ ‘the corner without an image worked in much the same way as an icon corner. Family videos showed that the curtain was lifted and the candle lit in it for birthdays and other important events…as would be done in front of the icon in other households’ (73)

Question 14

goltz

Answer 14

• ‘Hermann Goltz has argued that the insistence of the early church on the moral neutrality of the material world and its participation in God’s plan of salvation, elaborated in polemics against Gnostic and Manichaean dualisms, had a lasting effect on Eastern Orthodox thought, up to iconoclastic controversy and beyond’ (74)

Question 15

summary - theological foundation of icons

Answer 15

♣ John of Damascus and the defence of icons at the Second Council of Nicea in 787 CE, following iconoclast controversies
♣ Complex theology – prototype and image are distinct, prohibition of making images = challenged by Incarnation as ‘the first natural and undeviating image of the invisible God’
♣ 2nd commandment prohibited worship of images as divine beings, but that it is fitting to give honour to images that represent a genuine divine/holy prototype
♣ Icon = used for prayer, may be addressed to icon as a means of connecting with prototype
♣ Icon = physical object drawn in special way that allows it to be connected to the spiritual/divine world

Question 16

summary - protestant xianity and icons

Answer 16

• Protestant Xianity and icons (don’t need icons at all – they are idolatrous. Christ is only mediator)
  o Icons = condemnable
  o Narratives of conversion to Prot Xianity from Orthodoxy are often framed in terms of moving away from confusion over icons
  o Many Prot groups accuse Orthodox of idolatry, worship of material things
  o Prots state that they worship God alone
  o JC = only mediator, don’t need image of saint
  o No connection between material object and the prototype
  o Repetition of old iconoclast ideas, connected with Ref rejection of RCC holy relics
  o Are there traces of Soviet atheist propaganda in Prot view?
  ♣ The anti-RE propaganda ridiculed veneration and icons esp. those associated with miraculous properties e.g. exuding oil
  ♣ Soviets said educated priests used them to take advantage of uneducated laity
  ♣ Did the Soviet era produce a generation who sought rational scientific explanations for such miraculous properties?

Question 17

summary - pagan critique of icons

Answer 17

• ‘Pagan’ critique (icons themselves are venerable. Physical world/material object is in itself divine)
  o Do not like icons as they do not agree with distinction between material and the prototype
  o For the ‘pagan’, Mari God is present in material world and can be encountered directly through it e.g. groves of sacred trees
  o Icons = superfluous, physical objects are themselves sacred
  o Material object do not need to be consecrated to connect with the divine as they are inherently divine
  o In line with Prots in criticising ‘mediator’, however, for pagans it is because the material object itself is divine
  ♣ Orthodox = connected but need icon as mediator
  ♣ Prot = no connection
  ♣ ‘Pagan’ = no division, no need for mediator

Question 18

summary - defence of orthodox view of icons

Answer 18

• Orthodox defence
  o Many do acc know of John of Damascus’ arguments. They are not acc ignorant
  o Icons correct our view of e.g. JC and their form avoids sensuality that can arise from other images
  ♣ They do not mislead us into idolatry but rather put us right
  o Worship must involve visual imagination, if not engaged, true worship can be lead away from
  ♣ What happens when there are no images?
  o Orthodox fathers = critical of way laity uses icons. Use arguments similar to Prot defence

Question 19

summary - counter-example for protestant rejection of icons

Answer 19

o Prots do use one image
♣ Commercially produced map of city, inscribed by hand with ‘God loves the city of Ioshkar-Ola’
♣ Pray for evangelisation of city, whole congregation stretches out hand towards it
♣ Argument – map functions in worship as a physical object that gives a connection to the unseen spiritual world of their city
♣ Reverse to an icon – the map is used for praying for the city is a means by which grace flows from the image to the physical realm that it depicts
♣ Shows that all religions use images to a certain extent

Question 20

summary - impact of groups on eachother

Answer 20

-	Exposure of ideas comes from critique of one group of another 
o	3 paras – 3 views
o	how do they respond to one another?
o	How are they influenced by eachother?
o	Criticism ignites conversation