Who do you say that this is?
Notice that I did not ask whom this icon depicts. I asked who it *is.* And you answered correctly, right?
You can’t get an image that works properly as such unless the image and the thing to which it refers both participate to some extent in the same Form.
Consider a triangle, scribed on the page before you. Is it a triangle, at all? Is it the *least bit* triangular? If so, this can only be because it *truly* re-presents the Form of the Triangle. But as presenting that Form, it is a very instance of that Form. The Form of the Triangle is really, concretely present in the triangle on the page, albeit imperfectly.
Thus if an icon makes a part of the form of Christ present, then Christ is really present, at least in part. As with any sacrament, the signification operates by being itself participant in the thing signified.
Remembrance, then, is just such an imaginative re-presentation; in any memorial, the form of the substantial being we remember must be somehow present in our own, informing and shaping us, or else the phantasm we apprehend could not function for us as a memory. In that case, the phenomenon could not work to bring anything definite to mind; it could not generate a noumenon. We can remember only reals; and we can remember them only by making them again really present in our experience, or rather by admitting them thereto.
When we see an inscription of a triangle, we do not act as if it were a squiggle, signifying nothing. On the contrary, we order ourselves in relation to the inscription precisely in terms of its triangularity.
Reverence in the presence of an icon, then – a church, a cross, a Bible, a gathering of two or three in the Name, a saint – is at least good manners; is at least prudential.
But not worship, of course. There is in the notion that Christ is somehow present in an icon no tincture of idolatry. It should hardly be controversial to say that the Logos of the world, who expresses himself in every creature, and is therefore in all of them more or less immanent, is present also in an intentionally devised image of his perfect worldly instantiation. He is, of course. Nevertheless it is a foolish error to worship a creaturely image, rather than the One whose presence it indicates; for this is to confuse the term with its terminus. In like fashion, one does not take the measure of an actual triangle as straightforward demonstration of the eternal truths of trigonometry, but rather only as the manifestation thereof; nor does one try to journey from Phoenix to Flagstaff by walking across a map of Arizona.
Consider then that every man and woman you see is created in and by the Image of the Father; each is an icon. [End of article]
A full-body version of Christ the Pantocrator
I'm not sure about the source of this image. Reproductions are available on ebay, and other internet sale sites.
The word Pantocrator is of Greek origin meaning "ruler of all". Christ Pantocrator is an icon of Christ represented full or half-length and full-faced. He holds the book of the Gospels in his left hand and blesses with his right hand.Here is more on the script on the icon:
The icon portrays Christ as the Righteous Judge and the Lover of Mankind, both at the same time. The Gospel is the book by which we are judged, and the blessing proclaims God's loving kindness toward us, showing us that he is giving us his forgiveness. [Source: OrthoWiki]
[O]n each side of the halo are Greek letters: IC and XC. Christ's fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the Christogram ICXC (for "Jesus Christ"). The IC represents the Greek characters Iota (Ι) and Sigma (Σ, ς)—the first and last letters of Jesus (Ιησους). The letters XC represent Chi (Χ) and Sigma (ς)—the first and last letters of Christ (Χριστος). [Source: Wikipedia]
Christ Pantocrator
Menologion of Basil II, 10th c.
The Menologion of Basil II (also called Menologium of Basil II, Menology of Basil II) is an illuminated manuscript designed as a church calendar or Eastern Orthodox Church service book (Menologion) that was compiled c. 1000 AD, for the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). It includes 430 miniature paintings by eight artists. It was unusual for a menologion from that era to be so richly painted. It currently resides in the Vatican Library (Ms. Vat. gr. 1613). A full facsimile was produced in 1907. [Source: Wikipedia]
Menologium (from the Greek menológion, from mén "a month"; Latin menologium), also written menology, and menologe, is a service-book used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Rite of Constantinople.The argument on icons is a quintessentially Christian one. I won't go into the historical, cultural, and religious battles that ensued from the disagreements, but I agree with Kristor. We are mere humans. We need signs, sinners and potential unbelievers that we are. And I think God (and Christ) provide them for us, in a manner that we can understand and relate to. Through these mediums, we can finally turn to him.
From its derivation, menologium means "month-set"; in other words, a book arranged according to the months. Like a good many other liturgical terms (e.g. lectionary), the word has been used in several quite distinct senses. [Source: Wikipedia]
Also, on a more secular angle, a world without the colorful and artistic representations of God would be a very dull one. Surely, God wants us to have beauty in the world, and to find him through beauty, rather than austerity.
I would think it is sacriligious to want a world without beauty, and especially one which doesn't celebrate the beauty of God, in the ways that we know, and can perform. That is to say, through prayer, song and art (paintings, sculpture, jewellery - crosses, etc.).
Perhaps put in a more mundane way, who doesn't cherish the photograph of a loved one lost through death, or not present in the vicinity (from travel, etc.). Every one, religious or not, holds these images as the next best thing to the real one. Clearly they are not the real thing, but they represent it so much that they embody the real thing. They help retain the memory of the person on many levels, and often these memories become good ones. It is a continuation of the love for that absent person.
Since we cannot see God, and our era cannot/did not see Jesus, those representations are all we have. And if I can be a little sacrilegious on my part, they are like those photographs we cherish so much.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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