Adolph von Harnack was one of if not the most important Higher Critic scholars of the Bible during the nineteenth century. He wrote an eight volume series of books titled The History of Dogma.
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| Eight volumes in four books Dover paperback edition |
Read what he says makes the Greek, that is the Eastern Orthodox Church, distinctive.
The distinctive character of the Greek Church was most clearly expressed in the worship of pictures, in the form in which it was dogmatically settled after the controversy on the subject. There had been pictures from early times, originally for decorative purposes, and afterwards for instruction, in the grave-yards, churches, memorial chapels, and houses, and fixed to all sorts of furniture. Opposition had existed, but it came to an end in the Constantinian age. The people were to learn from the pictures the histories they depicted ; they were looked on as the books of the unlearned.
At the same time the picture was to adorn holy places. But still another interest gradually made itself felt, one that had formerly been most strenuously resisted by early Christianity. It is natural for men to desire relics and images of venerated beings, to withdraw them from profane use, and to treat them with deep devotion. Christianity had originally resisted this impulse, so far as any thing connected with the deity was concerned, in order not to fall into idolatry. There was less repugnance, however, to it, when it dealt with Christ, and almost none from the first in the case of martyrs and heroic characters. From this point the veneration of relics and pictures slowly crept in again. But from the fifth century it was greatly strengthened, and received a support unheard of in antiquity, through the dogma of the incarnation and the corresponding treatment of the Eucharist. Christ was the image of God, and yet a living being, nay, a life-giving spirit, Christ had by the incarnation made it possible to apprehend the divine in a material form, and had raised sensuous human nature to the divine: the consecrated elements were εἰκόνες of Christ and yet were his very body. These ideas introduced thought to a new world. It was not only the Areopagite and the mystics who saw in all consecrated finite things the active symbol of an eternal power, or perceived the superiority of the Christian religion to all others in the very fact that it brought the divine everywhere into contact with the senses. They merely raised to the level of a philosophic view what the common man and the monk had long perceived, namely, that everything secular which has been adopted by the Church became, not only a symbol, but also a vehicle of the sacred. But amid secular things the image, which bore as it were its consecration in itself, appeared to be least secular.
Pictures of Christ, Mary, and the saints, had been already worshipped from the fifth (fourth) century with greetings, kisses, prostration, a renewal of ancient pagan practices. In the naive and confident conviction that Christians no longer ran any risk of idolatry, the Church not only tolerated, but promoted, the entrance of paganism. It was certainly the intention to worship the divine in the material ; for the incarnation of deity had deified nature. A brisk trade was carried on in the seventh and beginning of the eighth century in images, especially by monks ; churches, and chapels were crowded with pictures and relics; the practice of heathen times was revived, only the sense of beauty was inverted. It was not fresh life that seemed fair, but, though a trace of the majestic might not be lacking, it was the life consecrated to asceticism and death. We do not know how far artistic incapacity, how far the dogmatic intention, contributed to the Byzantine ideal of the saints. " Authentic " pictures were in existence, and numberless copies were made from them. By their means, monkish piety, engaged in a stupid staring at sacred things, ruled the people, and dragged Christianity down to deeper and deeper depths.
If you think that is only the easily discarded opinion of one German Higher Critic scholar think again. The Sunday of Orthodoxy which commemorates the day icons were restored after the Seventh Ecumenical Council is celebrated every year. Here is a sample sermon from Fr. Josiah Trenham extolling icons.
18:08 Today, especially, we commemorate the faithfulness of the church to maintain her belief in the greatest miracle that the human race has ever witnessed, which is that God, in time, the uncreated one, became a creature.
That God, who has always been, became what he was not always a man without ceasing to be what he always was God.
This is why we confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is both, at the same time, truly God and truly man.
One Jesus, in two natures, divine and human, and that that fundamental Christian conviction, that heaven and earth have been joined, that angels of men have met, what was prophesied in the gospel reading today, that he would become a ladder upon which the angels of God would go up and down.
He would be the connector between heaven and earth, consubstantial with his father from all eternity and having a hand on his father, and consubstantial with us by his humanity, which he took in time, but maintains forever in a deified condition.
His hand on man, the ultimate savior, the reconciler, the peace between God and man, our Lord Jesus Christ, this is the gospel, the power of God under the salvation of everyone who believes.
We will never alter it, we will never give it up, and we confess it by depicting him everywhere.
Iconography is the expression of the greatest miracle that mankind has ever witnessed.
The depiction of Jesus as a human being isn't just a nice thing, it is a necessary thing, the church says.
There is no way to propagate the gospel without the words of Holy Scripture and the images of Jesus's faith, faith, period.
The iconoclast heretics who troubled the church for 150 years in the seventh and eighth century told us that this was improper, that this was a violation of the second commandment to make a graven image as though depicting the son of God in the flesh was making an idol.
Anathema to them we say today, their liars and heretics and deniers of the gospel, we will never accept the idea that Jesus must not be depicted in a holy icon.
Just like St. Victoria said, it's a foolish question why we celebrate the Eucharist as though there could be any Christian without the Eucharist, so it's a foolish question to ask why we would have a holy icon as though there could be Christianity without the depiction of Christ in image.
No iconography, no Christianity, mark my words because they're the words of the church.
Nathaniel in today's gospel who met Christ and made that beautiful confession, he held these two things together brothers and sisters.
He was a man, Jesus said, who had no guile. He was a man of virtue. What you saw was what you got. There wasn't a church Nathaniel or a Sunday Nathaniel and then a Monday through Saturday Nathaniel.
There was one Nathaniel and a guileless man, but he was also a man of the true faith. He said, rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel. Yes, I see your body that you're a man, but you're also God's son.
This fundamental conviction, brothers and sisters, is the true faith and this is ours. And the witness of this day, climaxing the first week of Great Lent, if to hold these two things together and this is what we must do.
We must hold the faith, keep the creed, believe the gospel and seek to become guileless people like Nathaniel. This combination of faith that's working through love is what saves us and this is why we'll never give it up.
Just think about that inane statement. Without pictures of Jesus Christ there can be no Christianity. How ridiculous! As if being able to depict Christ in an icon is essential to the Christian faith when icons did not even appear until long after Christ inaugurated His Church on a good confession in Him.
Matthew 16:15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Take it not only from the scholar Adolph von Harnack but from a modern day Orthodox priest. Picture worship, iconography, is the distinctive character of the Greek, that is Eastern Orthodox, Church.
