Study Guide: What the Orthodox Church Teaches About Icons

Book: Introducing the Orthodox Church: Its Faith and Life by Anthony M. Coniaris
Chapter 14: What the Orthodox Church Teaches About Icons

Summary

• The icon is theology in color. It acknowledges the central fact of Christianity — the Incarnation: God became man in Jesus Christ. To deny the legitimacy of the icon is, ultimately, to deny this very basis of salvation.
• The icon attempts to portray the two natures of Christ — human and divine — not just the human. Icons of the saints similarly portray the transfigured state of the saint who has been sanctified by the Holy Trinity and is fully alive in the presence of God.
• An icon is more like a portrait than a photograph in that it portrays what happens to people after God touches them. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the physical body is transformed and becomes like the spiritual body we shall receive at the Second Coming of Jesus.
• The icon, once blessed by the priest, becomes like a sacrament. It participates in the event it depicts and becomes, as it were, a making-present again of that event existentially for the believer.
• The icon is the distinguishing feature of every true Orthodox home. Icons transform each home into a "church" — a domestic church where God abides and where prayers are offered daily, consecrating the entire household to God.
• Icon painters (iconographers) have traditionally been monks who prepared themselves for the painting of each icon through fasting, prayer, and Holy Communion. The iconographer is not primarily an artist but a missionary who preaches visual theology. It was believed that to paint Jesus better, one must truly know Him better.
• The best icon of God is men and women who are made in God's own image (eikon). This is why the Orthodox priest during the liturgy turns and censes the congregation after having censed the icons on the screen and walls: every person is a living icon of God.
• The whole Bible is about this image (eikon) of God in man: how the image was marred by sin and how Jesus came to restore God's image in each one of us. Our purpose as Orthodox Christians is to develop the gift received in Baptism — to proceed from the restored image of God to the likeness of God — and thus become living icons of Christ in the world today.

Key Themes and Sections

1. Why Icons?

The icon serves a threefold purpose in Orthodox life:

1. Doctrinal — to confess and proclaim the Incarnation; God truly became visible in the flesh
2. Devotional — to provide a means of prayer and encounter with the living Christ and the saints
3. Didactic — to teach the faith visually, making the Gospel accessible to all, including the illiterate

The icon is not a decoration or a piece of religious art in the ordinary sense. It is a theological statement — a proclamation in form and color of the central truths of the Christian faith.

2. The Iconoclast Controversy

In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Iconoclasts ("image-breakers") argued that depicting Christ in images was forbidden by the Second Commandment and constituted idolatry. The Church responded that the Iconoclasts were not merely attacking art — they were attacking the doctrine of the Incarnation.

The decisive theological argument: if Jesus Christ is truly God become truly man, then He has a human face, and that face can be depicted. To say it cannot be depicted is to say He was not fully human — which is heresy (Docetism). The great defender of icons, St. John of Damascus, articulated: "The Word made flesh has deified the flesh." The materials used in icons — wood, paint, gold — are sanctified by this same logic: matter has been redeemed.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II, 787 AD) definitively ruled in favor of icons. The restoration of icons is celebrated annually on the Sunday of Orthodoxy — the first Sunday of Lent — as the "triumph of Orthodoxy."

The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century renewed suspicion of religious images. Luther permitted them as illustrations; Calvin was more restrictive; the Puritans despised and prohibited all religious paintings. The Orthodox Church maintains that the Incarnation permanently answers the objection to sacred imagery.

3. God: Invisible or Visible?

The deepest theological question about icons: can God be depicted? The answer hinges entirely on the Incarnation. Before the Incarnation, God was invisible and could not be depicted. After the Incarnation, the eternal Son of God has a human face — He has been seen, touched, heard. As Eric Newton writes:

"But from the moment when God sent His only begotten Son to dwell on earth, born of a mortal woman, to preach, to perform miracles, to suffer death at the hands of the Jews, and to be resurrected, the situation for the artist changed, for the new religion contained within itself the fact of the invisible made visible, the Deity made human, the supernatural made physically manifest. At last there was no reason to forbid imagery, for if God Himself became incarnate there could be no possibility of the artist's image of Him leading to idolatry."

4. What Is an Icon? — Theology of the Image

The early Church moved away from using symbols (Chi-Rho, the fish, the lamb) toward depicting Christ in His human form. The Trullan Synod (692 AD) specifically decreed that it was wrong to portray Christ as a sheep (Lamb of God) — if He really became man, He must be portrayed as a human being, not as an animal or symbol.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council added the critical requirement: images of Christ must portray both His human and divine natures. The representation must not be "too carnal" — not reducible to His humanity alone. The divine nature must be present in the image.

For this reason, Orthodox art created for Christ an idealized type — not a portrait of any particular human model, but a form that suggests the supra-natural, supra-rational reality of the God-Man. The Orthodox iconographer attempts to express the divine through hyperbole, exaggeration, and stylization — large eyes that have seen God, elongated hands that have touched the sacred, simplified features stripped of the accidental to reveal the essential.

Theodore Studites expressed this: "If we say that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, by the same manner His representation must be said to be the power and wisdom of God."

5. Three Ways of Portrayal

There are three ways of representing a person:

An icon is not unrealistic — it is supra-realistic. It depicts the transfigured state of man: a body filled with the Holy Spirit, so transformed in good, that it has become like the spiritual body we shall receive at the Second Coming of Christ. The icon is thus set apart from all other forms of pictorial art.

Icons have been called prayers, hymns, sermons in form and color. They are the visual Gospel. As St. Basil the Great said:

"What the word transmits through the ear, that painting silently shows through the image, and by these two means, mutually accompanying one another, we receive knowledge of one and the same thing."

6. Egyptian Art Influence

One of the forerunners of the icon is the Egyptian funeral portrait — a picture of the deceased painted on the mummy, with large, wide-open eyes staring at the beholder as if to say: "Here I am. You may think I'm gone and forgotten, but I dare you to forget me."

Early Christian icons followed the same pattern. The saints depicted in icons have huge eyes that look straight into the eyes of their beholders as if to say: "I may seem dead to you, but I am very much alive in the presence of God."

This principle extended to all the sensory organs in icon painting: the sensory organs are not rendered according to true anatomy because each has been changed by divine grace. The eyes are large to express spiritual intensity — they have seen God. The ears are large as a projection of the soul's ears that have heard the good news. The nose is long and thin — meant to smell not the things of this world but the fragrance of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The mouth is small — the saint "takes no thought of his life, what he shall eat and drink," but seeks first the Kingdom of God.

7. The Halo

In Western religious art, the halo functions as a label: because the depicted figure looks worldly, the halo announces that this is a holy person. In the icon, holiness is expressed by the entire form and style of the image — the stylized features, the spiritual bearing, the quality of light. Therefore the halo is not necessary to identify holiness; it adds to it. This is why many early icons and catacomb paintings depict Christ and the martyrs without halos.

8. Existential Encounter — The Icon as Sacrament

The icon is more even than a means of instruction. It is in effect a sacrament. An icon is not fully an icon until it has been blessed by a priest in the church. Once blessed, it becomes:

• A link between the human and the divine
• A place of existential encounter between the believer and God
• A point of appearance of Christ, provided one stands before it with the right disposition of heart

As Sergei Bulgakov wrote: "By the blessing of the icon of Christ, a mystical meeting of the faithful and Christ is made possible."

Many icons are regarded as "wonder-working" — channels of miraculous healing and divine intervention. These are the icons par excellence.

Cecil Steward describes the experience of standing among icons:

"The pictures seem to be arranged in a way which instills a feeling of direct relationship between the viewer and the pictures...each personality is represented facing one, so that one stands, as it were, within the congregation of saints. Byzantine art, in fact, puts one in the picture. He (the viewer) observes and is observed."

9. Practical Use of Icons in the Home

Orthodox Christians do not confine icons to the church building. The traditional Orthodox home has a "God-corner" (krasny ugol) with icons and a votive light burning before them — a reminder of God's presence and a center for family prayer. In old Russia, no house was considered truly a home until it had been consecrated by the icon.

Helene Iswolsky writes in Christ in Russia:

"In the old days...a Russian entering his home or visiting a friend would first of all bow low before the icons and make the sign of the cross before greeting his family or host. The icons symbolized God's presence; they were a constant reminder of the supernatural life, and appealed to morality and conscience. It is difficult to lie, to cheat, to be brutal in front of an icon. The communists in Russia did all they could to tear away the icons from men's homes, to deprive them of the image of their God, and to stifle the conscience of the people."

The icon in the home consecrates the profane, transforms a neutral dwelling place into a domestic church, and makes the life of the faithful into an unceasing liturgy. Archbishop Paul of Finland said: "The icon in the corner of the room where we pray is a window into the kingdom of God and a bond with its members."

The icon was never intended to hang on a wall as an aesthetic object. An icon divorced from the framework of belief and worship ceases to function as an icon.

10. Icon Painters

Orthodox iconographers are not primarily artists but missionaries who preach visual theology. Traditionally, they are monks who prepare for each icon through fasting, prayer, Confession, and Communion — knowing themselves to be instruments through whom the Holy Spirit expresses Himself.

The icon, like the Word, is a revelation, not a decoration or illustration. It is theology in color. A young artist once showed a painting of Jesus to a great painter for his verdict. The elder studied it and said: "You don't love Him, or you would paint Him better."

In the East, the iconographer is a charismatic who contemplates the liturgical mysteries and instructs the theologian. In the West, the theologian has often instructed and limited the artist. The iconographer's task requires not just skill but holiness.

11. God's Best Icon — The Living Icon

The best icon of God is man and woman — made in God's own image (eikon). This is the reason the Orthodox priest during the liturgy turns and censes the congregation after having censed the icons on the icon screen and walls.

Every person in the congregation is a living icon of God. Through censing, the priest pays respect to the image of God in man which resides in all persons regardless of color of skin or class. To venerate the icons in church while showing disrespect to the living icons of God — our fellow human beings — is hypocrisy of the worst kind.

12. Icons Express Our Goal in Life — Theosis

Our goal in life according to Orthodox theology is THEOSIS — to become like God. This starts in Baptism when the restored image is given to us. Our purpose is to proceed from the restored image to the likeness of God. The likeness is not given; it is the task of personal holiness achieved through God's grace.

St. Seraphim of Sarov said: "The purpose of the Christian life is the acquiring of the Holy Spirit." To acquire the Holy Spirit is to acquire the likeness of God.

The icon shows us this goal. Through the icon we represent Him Who through His incarnation restored God's image in man, or we represent the saints who through their constant openness to the Holy Spirit have acquired the true likeness of God and have become living icons. Our purpose as Orthodox Christians is to proceed from image to likeness — and thus become living icons of Christ in the world today.

13. A Study of Individual Icons

Icon of the Nativity: The Creator of the Universe entering history as a newborn babe — complete submission to the physical conditions of human existence. Angels, Magi, shepherds, the star, the earth, and the animals all participate in worshipping the infant Lord. The lower scenes underscore the scandal of the Incarnation: that He was born like any other child.

Icon of the Crucifixion: In contrast to Western depictions that emphasize agony and horror, the Orthodox crucifixion icon radiates heavenly tranquility. As Photios Kontoglou writes: "Christ is depicted as standing on the Cross, not hanging on it... The expression on His face is full of heavenly tranquility; the affliction which has befallen Him is full of gentleness and forgiveness... It is the suffering redeemer, He Who has undone the pangs of death, Who has granted the peace of the life to come."

Icon of Christ Pantocrator: The typical Byzantine icon of Christ is the Pantocrator — the Lord Omnipotent, enthroned in majesty, holding the Gospel book, His right hand raised in blessing. It is the image of the glorified Christ regnant on His heavenly throne. The Pantocrator appears in Revelation 1:8: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty (Pantocrator)."

Icon of the Theotokos: The Theotokos is portrayed not from any human model but as an idealized type — the expression of meekness, humility, purity, spiritual love and wisdom concentrated in the face. In the icon of the Virgin with Child, the Mother does not look at the Child but inward — contemplating the mystery of the God who became man in her. The Child expresses all the human tenderness; she holds Him with the shyness of one holding something sacred.

Icon of the Dormition: The Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin (Koimesis) shows the Virgin's body asleep in the Lord while Jesus stands behind her holding her soul — depicted as a tiny infant newly born to eternal life. In the foreground, a pagan figure who tried to desecrate the bier is smitten by an angel — representing the Nestorian controversy over the Theotokos, decided at the Council of Ephesus.

Key Quotes

"The Word made flesh has deified the flesh." — St. John of Damascus

"If a pagan asks you to show him your faith, take him into church and place him before the icons." — St. John of Damascus

"What the word transmits through the ear, that painting silently shows through the image, and by these two means, mutually accompanying one another, we receive knowledge of one and the same thing." — St. Basil the Great

"By the blessing of the icon of Christ, a mystical meeting of the faithful and Christ is made possible." — S. Bulgakov

"Christ is depicted as standing on the Cross, not hanging on it. His body is of flesh, but flesh of another nature, flesh whose nature has been changed through the grace of the Holy Spirit. The expression on His face is full of heavenly tranquility." — Photios Kontoglou

"The icon in the corner of the room where we pray is a window into the kingdom of God and a bond with its members." — Archbishop Paul of Finland

"The purpose of the Christian life is the acquiring of the Holy Spirit." — St. Seraphim of Sarov

"You don't love Him, or you would paint Him better." — A great painter to a young artist who painted Jesus

"He (the viewer) observes and is observed." — Cecil Steward, on Byzantine iconography

Discussion Questions

• The defense of icons rests entirely on the Incarnation: because God became visible in Christ, He can be depicted. How does this theological argument work? What does it reveal about the importance of the doctrine of the Incarnation for all of Orthodox life and worship?
• The Iconoclasts believed icons were idolatry. The Orthodox responded that rejecting icons was rejecting the Incarnation. Who do you think had the stronger argument, and why?
• An icon is "supra-realistic" — it portrays not what a person looks like now but what they have become through the Holy Spirit. How does this vision of the human person challenge purely materialist or naturalist views of what a human being is?
• St. Basil says the icon and the word "mutually accompany one another" — the Eastern Church has two Gospels: the verbal and the visual. What is the advantage of a faith that addresses both the ear and the eye? What is lost when worship becomes purely verbal?
• The icon, once blessed, becomes like a sacrament — a place of existential encounter with Christ. Have you experienced an icon functioning this way? What conditions make such an encounter possible?
• The chapter says it is "difficult to lie, to cheat, to be brutal in front of an icon." Why might the physical presence of a sacred image function as a moral check on behavior? What does this say about the power of the visual?
• The priest censes both the icons on the walls and the congregation — honoring both the painted icons and the living icons of God. How should this practice shape how we regard and treat other people?
• The iconographer prepares to paint through fasting, prayer, and Communion — knowing himself to be an instrument of the Holy Spirit. What does this say about the relationship between holiness and creative work? How might this principle apply to non-iconographers in their callings?
• Orthodox theology distinguishes between the image of God (given at Baptism, the foundation) and the likeness of God (the goal of theosis, achieved through cooperation with grace). What practical difference does this distinction make in how we understand the Christian life?
• The icon of the Crucifixion shows Christ "standing on the Cross, not hanging" — radiating peace and victory rather than agony and defeat. How does the Orthodox iconographic vision of the Cross differ from Western portrayals? What theological emphasis does each approach convey?

Key Scripture References

• Genesis 1:26-27 — Man made in the image (eikon) and likeness of God
• John 1:14 — "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"
• Colossians 1:15 — Christ as "the image (eikon) of the invisible God"
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 — Being transformed into the image of Christ by the Spirit
• Revelation 1:8 — "I am the Alpha and the Omega... the Almighty (Pantocrator)"
• Revelation 4:3 — The rainbow/iris around the divine throne (multicolored band of the Pantocrator)
• 2 Peter 1:4 — "Partakers of the divine nature" (theosis)
• Isaiah 6:1-3 — The vision of the Holy Seraphim
• Matthew 25:40 — "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me" (every person as icon of God)

Key Terms

• Eikon (Greek: "image") — The Greek word for icon; also the word used in Genesis 1:26 for the image of God in man and in Colossians 1:15 for Christ as the image of the Father
• Iconoclasm (Greek: eikon + klan, "to break") — The 8th-9th century heresy that rejected the veneration of icons as idolatry
• Iconography — The sacred art of writing (not "painting") icons according to the theological and aesthetic canons of the Orthodox Church
• Pantocrator (Greek: "Ruler of all," "Almighty") — The standard icon of Christ enthroned in glory; appears in Revelation 1:8
• Theosis (Greek: "deification") — The Orthodox understanding of salvation as participation in the divine nature; becoming like God through grace
• Sunday of Orthodoxy — The first Sunday of Great Lent; celebrates the restoration of icons after the Iconoclast controversy (843 AD) as the "Triumph of Orthodoxy"
• Seventh Ecumenical Council — Nicaea II (787 AD); definitively affirmed the veneration of icons and distinguished it from the worship (latria) due to God alone
• Trullan Synod (Quinisext Council, 692 AD) — Decreed that Christ must be depicted in human form, not as a lamb or symbol
• Veneration vs. Worship — The critical Orthodox distinction: icons receive veneration (proskynesis) which passes through to the prototype; only God receives worship (latria)
• Domestic Church (Greek: oikos ekklesia) — The Orthodox understanding of the Christian home as a small church, with its own "altar" (icon corner) and daily liturgy of prayer
• Iconostasis — The screen of icons separating the nave from the altar in an Orthodox church (discussed in Ch. 9)
• Koimesis (Greek: "falling asleep") — The Dormition of the Theotokos; also used for Christian death
• Dormition (Latin: "falling asleep") — The feast of the Theotokos's "falling asleep" (August 15); depicted in the Dormition icon

For Further Reading

• The Meaning of Icons — Leonid Ouspensky & Vladimir Lossky
• Theology of the Icon — Leonid Ouspensky
• The Icon: Window on the Kingdom — Michel Quenot
• Sacred Tradition in Orthodox Christianity — Fr. John Anthony McGuckin
• The Orthodox Church — Bp. Kallistos Ware