[Vision2020] Icons

[Ralph Nielsen]

An interesting observation, David.

We have to remember that in olden times very few people could read  
and there was practically nothing available to read anyway. So  
communication was either visual or oral or a combination of the two.  
And we mustn't forget music, which in church rituals and opera is a  
combination of the two.

Here we have some interesting contrasts. In the western church, both  
statuary and instrumental music were permitted, but in the eastern  
church only flat icons and non-instrumental music were permitted. But  
the later religion of Islam went even further in prohibiting both  
musical and pictorial forms of worship. Verbal only.

I wonder if the prohibition of statues derives from a wandering  
pastoral society, where it would be awkward to haul statues around  
with them. And if statues and music were more appropriate to settled  
urban societies. But it gets more complicated than that, doesn't it?

Ralph


On Feb 25, 2007, at 5:48 PM, david sarff wrote:

>
> Wonder if the structures that visual thinkers ( non-linguistic)    
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_thinking communicate with are  
> viewed as idolatry.

> I have wondered about this for a long time, that we have a hidden  
> vast miscommunication problem between linguistically dominant and  
> non linguistically dominant persons and societies.
>
> Dave
>
>> Seeing the icons on Gary Greenfield's blog site prompts me to pass
>> this on.
>>
>> After the takeover of the Christian church by Constantine, Jesus and
>> other important figures in the church were represented in the same
>> royal garb as was worn in the court of the emperor in Constantinople
>> (present day Istanbul). The large churches became known as royal
>> palaces or basilicas. On the ceiling was usually a large mosaic of
>> the Emperor Jesus glowering down on his humble subjects. The clergy
>> were dressed in expensive robes that put to shame the lilies of the
>> field. The Christian liturgy was very similar to the court ceremonial
>> of the day.
>>
>> However, statues were not used in the Eastern Church because carved
>> images were forbidden to the ancient Hebrews in one of Yahweh's Words
>> (Commandments). But the Western Church continued the use of statues
>> for religious purposes, as had been done for many centuries by the
>> pagan Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
>>
>> Several centuries later many Protestants went even further in
>> ecclesiastical iconoclasm and forbade both statues and pictures. To
>> this day in many old Dutch Calvinist churches the original Catholic
>> stained glass windows have been replaced by plain Protestant glass.
>> So instead of worshipping an icon or a statue many Protestants now
>> worship the Bible. Idolatry has been replaced by Bibliolatry.
>>
>> Ralph