Sensitive to the
iconodule criticism that imagery leads to idolatry, Orthodoxy made canonical "the ethereal, the symbol, geometrism, hyperbolic asceticism," producing what Alain Besancon called "a compromise between the full vision of Christ's humanity and the symbolic abstractions tolerated by iconoclasm." Acknowledging critics' Platonic distrust of the emotional power of imagery, Orthodox iconography rejected the realism that was its legacy from the ancient world in favor of conventions of pose and gesture to represent emotions and actions and of costume and facial hair to identify specific individuals.
Some readers may question one or another of the author's conclusions, e.g., that the success of subsequent Protestant iconoclastic policies and activities in England necessarily signifies both the dangers inherent in
iconodule practices and the weakness of their theoretical justification.
Theodore was an
iconodule monk at the time when both monasticism and image veneration were often under oppressive imperial scrutiny.
The book consists of three parts: part 1 is a presentation of a very generous selection of the literary evidence for attitudes to religious images in the period up to the outbreak of iconoclasm (it ends with Germanos of Constantinople and John Damascene), which consists of the passages in German translation linked together by passages of brief editorial introduction and comment; part 2 provides a critical discussion of the texts introduced in part 1 (which, given that many of them survive only in florilegia put together by the
iconodule theologians, raise many difficult issues); part 3 contains the texts in their original language, taken from the best editions available.
She documents every known instance in correspondence, hagiography, and chronicles of women's involvement in the iconoclastic controversy, primarily on the
iconodule side.
(139.) [ARABIC TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Dialogue of the Monk and Recluse Moschus Concerning the Holy Icons (Alexakis, "Early
Iconodule Text"); Socrates: Historia ecclesiastica 6.25 (PG 67:793C-796A).
The battle between word and image can be seen as a centuries-old return match: as in the eighth century a dispute erupted in the Byzantine Empire between the so-called iconoclasts (those against the use of images) and the
iconodules (those in favour of images), concerning the depiction of Christ and other holy personages.
The Christian iconoclastic controversy derived ultimately from quarrels over biblical exegesis, with both iconoclasts and
iconodules supporting their positions with the authority of relevant biblical passages.
(8) This is true of his divinity; of course, the
iconodules defended the representation of Christ precisely because of his humanity.
The icons were destroyed and the
iconodules persecuted." (47) Iconoclasm can be seen as a conservative reaction against the "new expression of radical incarnational-realism" and was not without theological backing.
In his exposition of the historical debate between the
iconodules and iconoclasts, B.