Aniconism in the first centuries of Christianity

Abstract

ABSTRACTScholars generally agree that Christian iconography emerged only in the 3rd century. The absence of earlier, unambiguously Christian artifacts led many scholars to characterize Christians as initially aniconic largely in deference to biblical prohibitions of graven images and to regard the pictorial art’s emergence as a departure from the church’s original disapproval. This essay argues that classical philosophical arguments were even more influential on Christian condemnation of divine images than biblical texts and that when it emerged, Christian art essentially served non-idolatrous didactic rather than devotional purposes. Finally, this essay maintains that the demise of polytheism (and its perceived idolatry) changed both the circumstances and content of the debate over divine images. Whereas earlier censure mainly contended that manufactured objects were incapable of representing an invisible God, later criticism focused more on the problems of representing Christ’s human and divine natures and whether saints’ portraits were proper foci for prayer and veneration.