Iconoclasm

M. C. STEENBERG

Iconoclasm (literally, “icon-smashing”) refers to a period in church history, usually considered as spanning 730 to 842, in which the legitimacy of the veneration of icons was questioned in parts of the Byzantine Empire. Generally considered as beginning with Emperor Leo III, policies of remov­ing icons from Orthodox churches were followed by the destruction of the icons themselves. The origin of the name lies in this pattern of destroying the sacred images, whether by smashing, burning, or the whitewashing of churches.

Those in opposition to the destruction of the icons (iconodules, “those who venerate icons”) successfully defended their use on theological and traditional grounds at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in Constanti­nople (787), given impetus by the support of the Empress Irene. A resurgence of icon­oclastic fervor took place under Leo V, who from 813 instituted a second period of icon­oclastic imperial policy, albeit less severe in tone than the first. The definitive restora­tion of the icons did not take place until the first Sunday of Great Lent, 842, when, under the leadership of regent Theodora, a synod was held in Constantinople that culminated with a procession from the Blachernae to Hagia Sophia, restoring the icons to the Great Church and establishing a feast in honor of the event (commemorated ever after as the Triumph of Orthodoxy).

These periods of iconoclasm were forma­tive in the Orthodox articulation of its theo­logy of worship, during which time such figures as St. John of Damascus compiled tracts (e.g., his three treatises against those who defame the images) demonstrating the coherence of iconographic representation in a worshipping theology grounded in the incarnation.

SEE ALSO: Council of Nicea II (787); Ico­nography, Styles of; Icons; Pantocrator Icon; St. John of Damascus (ca. 675-ca. 750)

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Bryer, A. M. andHerrin, J. (1977) Iconoclasm. Papers given at the 9th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Birmingham University, 1975. Birmingham: Birmingham University Press. Cormack, R. (1985) Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and its Icons. London: George Philip. Hussey, J. M. (1986) The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Louth, A. (trans.) (2003) St. John of Damascus: Three Treatises on the Divine Images. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

McGuckin, J. A. (1993) “The Theology of Images and the Legitimation of Power in Eighth Century Byzantium,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 37, 1: 39–58.

Ouspensky, L. (1992) Theology of the Icon, 2 vols.

Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press. Roth, C. P. (trans.) (1981) St. Theodore the Studite: On the Holy Icons. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.