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Iconolatry (Greek: εἰκών,eikon, 'picture or image', + λατρεία,latreia, 'veritable (full) worship or adoration') designates theidolatric worship or the adoration oficons. In thehistory of Christianity, iconolatry was mainly manifested in popular worship, as freedom of worship while others viewed it assuperstitious belief in the divine nature of icons or deities. It was practiced as a focal point on icons, and other deities representing varioussaints,angels and theGod. One of extreme practices of iconolatry was scraping parts of icons into theHoly Communion.
Iconolatry is the opposite oficonoclasm, and it also should not be confused withiconophilia, designating the moderate veneration of icons. Both extreme positions, iconolatry and iconoclasm, were rejected in 787 by theSecond Council of Nicaea, being the seventhEcumenical Council.[1] The Council decided that holy icons should not be destroyed, as was advocated and practiced by theByzantine iconoclasm, nor veritable (full) worshiped or adored (Greek:ἀληθινήν λατρείαν;Latin:veram latriam), as was practiced by iconolatry, but to be only venerated as symbolic representations of God, angels, or saints.
Icon in Greek simply denotes a picture but it has now come to be closely associated with religious art which is used by theEastern Orthodox andCatholic Churches. Icons are used to assist inprayer and theworship of God by Orthodox Churches. Icon (image) is the same word used in theBible inGenesis 1:27,Colossians 1:15.
The Eastern Orthodox Church (which finally reinstated the icons) held at least two Church councils in order to make a decision about the proper use of icons. TheCouncil of Hieria in 754 expressly forbade the making of icons, and ordered all pictures of Jesus and the saints to be removed from the churches, saying that they ought instead to be decorated with pictures of birds, flowers, and fruit. This council was held near Constantinople, and all attending bishops were from the Constantinople Patriarchate. The other patriarchs refused to send any delegates.
TheSecond Council of Nicaea held in 787 reversed the decisions of that council. This Council of Church leaders (bishops) was a key step towards an alternate understanding of the use of religious art in the Church. An early Church council definedveneration of icons based on the sacred mystery of theincarnation of Jesus Christ. The Person of Jesus was thought to reveal not only the Word of God (1Jn 1:1–4), but the image of God (1Jn 4:9). Pre-Christian scriptures definedidolatry as worshipping of false gods. Church leaders defended images of Christ on the basis that they were representations of the true incarnation of God and clarified the relationship between an image and the one depicted by the image. The principle of respected worship is that, in honoring an image, the honor is to paid not to the image itself, but the one who is portrayed. After the period of Iconoclasm was over, respected veneration of icons spread toSerbia,Bulgaria, and to distantRussia.
Depictions of icons which bear the image of God the Father and the Holy Spirit wereforbidden in the Orthodox Church, unless they were depicted in the context of theRevelation or the Apocalypse ofSaint John, where God the Father is described as an older version ofJesus. Some prefer the depiction of God in the icon type ofRublev's Holy Trinity. Others believe that, because no-one has ever seen God the Father, he should never be depicted in icons, while Jesus, who was seen by human eyes, is allowed to be pictured.
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