Aniconism in Christianity

Christianity has not generally practised aniconism, or the avoidance or prohibition of types of images, but has had an active tradition of making and venerating images of God and other religious figures. However there are periods of aniconism in Christian history, notably in the Early Christian church, in the Byzantine iconoclasm of the 8th century, and following the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, when Calvinism in particular rejected all images in churches. Puritanism also rejected all images and some of these practices continue today in Fundamentalist Christianity.

Christian aniconism has only very rarely covered general secular images, unlike aniconism in Islam; Anabaptist groups such as the Amish are rare exceptions.

Early Christianity

Many voices in Early Christianity spoke against the creation of religious images. This was firstly because of the Jewish background of most of the first Christians, and also because images were associated with the idolatry of the pagan Ancient Roman religion and other cults and religions around them.^[1] In the 1st century the issues are discussed in the Letters of St. Paul and a prohibition of idolatry is included in the Apostolic Decree. There are mentions of images of Jesus from the 2nd century onwards. The Catacombs of Rome contain the earliest images, mostly painted, but also including reliefs carved on sarcophagi. Jesus is often represented by pictogram symbols, though he is also portrayed.

After Constantine

A major change came with the conversion to Christianity of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, when a style of art emerged suitable to use in the grand churches then being built. However figurative monumental sculpture was still avoided in the West until the time of Charlemagne around 800; the Franks had no association of sculpture with cult images and a life-size crucifix (with "corpus") known to have been in the Palatine Chapel, Aachen was probably a pivotal work, opening the way to the free general use of large sculpture. This was contemporary with the Byzantine iconoclasm (see below). Religious sculpture, especially if large and free-standing, has always been extremely rare in Eastern Christianity. The Western church was anxious to distinguish its use of images from idolatry, and set out its theological position in the Carolingian Libri Carolini, in similar but slightly different terms to those set out by the Eastern church after the episode of Iconoclasm.

God the Father

The depiction of God the Father in art long remained unacceptable; he was typically only shown with the features of Jesus, which had become fairly standardized by the 6th century, in scenes such as the Garden of Eden. The rationale for this was the doctrine of the pre-existing Christ or Logos, which holds that Christ has existed from the beginning of time. Very simply put, as a member of the Holy Trinity of three persons in one God, representations of God could be achieved by depicting Jesus as Logos, except in the few cases where both Jesus and God the Father needed to be shown separately, as in scenes of the Baptism of Jesus. Alternatively God the Father was represented only by the Hand of God, which probably reached Christian art from Hellenistic Judaism, as it is prominent in the wall paintings of the 3rd century Dura-Europos synagogue in Syria. Depictions of God the Father, essentially as the Old Testament Ancient of Days, only became common in the West from about 1200 onwards, and remain controversial in Eastern Orthodoxy, still being prohibited by the Russian Orthodox Church for example (where images of the Ancient of Days, also banned, are held to represent Christ). Free-standing monumental sculpture is also avoided by the Orthodox churches, and reliefs are much rarer, especially large ones. On the other hand icons have a slightly different theological position in Orthodoxy and play a more significant part in religious life than in Roman Catholicism, let alone the Protestant churches.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) was an influential Cistercian monk who famously wrote against the excessive use of imagery in a monastic context, and was largely responsible for the unornamented style of Cistercian architecture. However his attack concentrated on what he saw as frivolous non-religious elements in the Romanesque religious art of his day, which he said distracted monks from their religious life.

Byzantine iconoclasm

There were two periods of iconoclasm, or icon-destruction, in the Byzantine Empire, in the mid eighth and early ninth centuries. The arguments of the Iconoclasts remain rather obscure, as almost all their writings were destroyed after the "Triumph of Orthodoxy". The simple belief that images were idolatrous appears to have been their main motive; reference was made to the prohibitions on the worship of graven images in the Mosaic Law, and aniconic statements by the Church Fathers, some of which may now be lost. One theological issue revolved around the two natures of Jesus. Iconoclasts believed that icons could not represent both the divine and the human natures of the Messiah at the same time, but separately. Because an icon which depicted Jesus as purely physical would be Nestorianism, and one which showed Him as both human and divine would not be able to do so without confusing the two natures into one mixed nature, which was Monophysitism, all icons were thus heretical.

The political aspects of the conflicts are complex, involving with the relationship between the Byzantine Emperors, the Orthodox Church councils, and the Pope. There has been much scholarly discussion over the possible influence on the Iconoclasts of the aniconism in Islam, the century-old religion which had inflicted devastating defeats on Byzantium in the decades preceding. Most scholars reject direct religious influence, though many feel the feeling of crisis produced by defeats at the hands of Islam contributed to the Iconoclast movement. Both the cross and secular two-dimensional images continued to be acceptable, indeed were used to replace religious imagery in the two best-known examples. The defeat of Byzantine Iconoclasm was so emphatic that the issue has never arisen again in Orthodoxy.

Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Opposition to religious imagery was a feature of proto-Protestant movements such as the Lollards in England, and then became a key feature of the Protestant Reformation, when Protestants preached in violent terms the rejection of what they perceived as idolatrous Catholic practices such as religious pictures, statues, or relics of saints. Andreas Karlstadt was the earliest extreme iconoclast, to be followed by John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. The Reformed (Calvinist) churches and certain sects (most notably the Puritans and some of the Baptist churches) completely prohibited the display of religious images, even the cross. Apart from official destruction of art, there were outbreaks of violent iconoclasm such as the Beeldenstorm in the Low Countries in 1566. Lutheranism and Anglicanism also removed most images and symbols from churches and discouraged their private use. However while portraits of saints were destroyed, portraits of contemporary individuals, including church leaders, were not considered problemmatic, and exist in large numbers, with some "Lutheran altarpieces" even showing leading reformers as the Apostles at the Last Supper. Nearly all Protestant churches are now considerably more relaxed over the use of religious art and symbols than they were in the Reformation period, though many denominations avoid images in churches.

Faced with the Protestant challenge to imagery, then far more virulent than it usually is today, the Catholic Counter-Reformation reacted by quietly removing some types of medieval imagery that could not be justified theologically, but otherwise by strengthening its commitment to the use of art and images to promote the Christian message, though tightening up on the detailed content of imagery, which was brought under stricter control by the church.

The virtual end of the production of religious painting in Protestant parts of Europe had the effect of diverting artistic production into secular subjects, especially in Dutch Golden Age painting of the 17th century. While Catholic Europe was still producing Baroque altarpieces in large numbers, the Netherlands produced genres scenes, very often of ungodly behaviour, still lifes, portraits and landscapes. Moralistic messages were often attached to these, though the subject matter often fights somewhat with them. Protestant religious art, mainly in the form of illustrations of biblical events, continued in printmaking and book illustrations, for example in the etchings of Rembrandt, who also painted biblical subjects.

Among Christians today

Calvinist aniconism, especially in printed material, and stained glass, can generally be said to have weakened in force, although the range and context of images used are much more restricted than in Catholicism or parts of Anglicanism, where the Anglo-Catholic movement since the 19th century has seen a major revival in the use of religious images. The Pentacostal and other Evangelical churches ultimately springing from the Moravian rather than Calvinist tradition are readier to use large crosses and other images, though not with the profusion of traditional Catholicism. Hence works like the colossal King of Kings statue in Ohio, destroyed by lightning in 2010. Somewhat strangely, Bob Jones University, a standard bearer for militant traditional Calvinist values, has a major collection of Baroque old master Catholic altarpieces proclaiming the Counter-Reformation message, though these are kept in a gallery, not a church setting.

Catholic churches, after a large clear-out of 19th century images following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, are now generally keen to preserve their existing artistic heritage, but new churches typically contain far fewer images than at any point in the last 1500 years.

The Amish and some other Mennonite groups continue to avoid photographs or any depictions of people; their children's dolls usually have blank faces.^[2] The Brethren in Christ, another branch of Anabaptism, rejected all use of photography until the mid-20th century.

Notes

See also

• Iconoclasm
• Censorship, Censorship by organized religion

References

General

• Jack Goody, Representations and Contradictions: Ambivalence Towards Images, Theatre, Fiction, Relics and Sexuality, London, Blackwell Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-631-20526-8.