Icon: Studies in the History of An Idea

TEN In Defense of Images: John of Damascus

T E N In Defense of Images: John of Damascus i. The New Stage We hav e no w reache d th e concludin g stag e o f th e stor y thi s boo k ha s undertaken to tell. The debate over the image of Go d an d the representation o f th e invisible , i t goe s withou t saying , continue d t o b e waged . The headings changed , but the passion, sometimes even the violence, of the debat e remained . I n th e presen t study , however , w e hav e trie d t o examine it s developmen t onl y u p t o th e stag e when , i n th e Byzantin e world, th e questio n wa s pronounce d resolved . S o fa r w e hav e bee n watching the unfolding of the different aspect s of the argument over the question o f whethe r ther e can , o r cannot , b e a "tru e image " o f God . History, like a good schoolmaster, has transformed every new situation, every new social an d political development , into a new question, and to every questio n i t has produced a n answer that has furthe r impelle d th e intellectual movement . 185 186 The Doctrine of the Icon A studen t wh o reenact s i n hi s min d th e developmen t o f Christia n thought o n image s fro m th e sixt h t o th e eight h century—say , fro m Dionysius Areopagit a t o Joh n o f Damascus—canno t fai l t o notic e a distinct change o f intellectua l atmosphere . O n the face of i t the change would no t see m t o g o ver y deep . Th e theme s discusse d ar e largel y traditional, there is little difference i n terminology, and even the internal conflicts an d paradoxe s ar e know n fro m earlie r periods. An d yet , th e attentive reade r canno t doub t tha t th e discussio n ha s entere d a ne w stage. The change s ar e most easil y graspe d whe n w e loo k a t the historica l circumstances tha t forme d th e direct , immediat e backgroun d o f th e theories of icons to be discussed here. Foremost among these conditions is what migh t b e calle d th e "politicization " of th e icon , makin g i t th e centerpiece o f violen t politica l debate . T o b e sure , th e discussion s o f images that occupied the Christian world in earlier centuries never completely suppresse d th e politica l connotations . Thi s i s tru e eve n i f th e earlier debate s wer e carrie d o n i n wha t see m t o b e purel y theologica l terms. This, as is well known, changed drastically i n the eighth century. The Iconoclastic Debate, the major event or process in Eastern Christianity of the eighth and ninth centuries, made the icon explicitly and directly an object of political struggle, a central political symbol . It is not for us here to describ e the history o f th e iconoclastic move ment , o r eve n t o trac e th e theoretica l an d ideologica l debate s tha t ac companied , and reflected th e different stage s of, thi s movement. All this has bee n don e mor e tha n once , an d w e d o no t nee d t o repea t what i s already well known . Th e one thing I should lik e to remark her e is that when the image became a central political issue, the theoretical questions raised fro m tim e t o tim e i n th e cours e o f th e precedin g centurie s wer e endowed wit h a new urgency. Man y ideas and attitudes that for centuries were only half articulate had to be fully crystallized; arguments that for many generations had remained up to a point either loose reflection s or literary metaphors now had to be given a clear solution. It was...