Theology Of Image Research Articles

Classical Conceptions of Visuality and Representation in John of Damascus' Defense of Holy Images1

The Defense of Holy Images by John of Damascus stands as the archetypal exposition of the Christian theology of images. Written at the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Controversy, it has been mostly valued for its theological content and given scholarly short shrift as a narrowly focused polemic. The work is more than that. It presents a complex and profound explication of the nature of images and the phenomenon of representation, and is an important part of the “history of looking”in western culture. A long chain of visual conceptions connects classical Greek and Roman writers, such as Homer and Quintilian, to John: the living image, the interrelation of word and image, and image and memory, themes elaborated particularly in the Second Sophistic period of the early Common Era. For John to deploy this heritage so skillfully to the thorny problem of the place of images in Christianity, at the outbreak of a violent conflict that lasted a further 100 years after his writing, manifests an intellect and creativity that has not been sufficiently appreciated. The Defense of Holy Images, understood in this context, is another innovative synthesis of Christianity and classical culture produced by late antique Christian writers.

Augustine’s Reception of Augustine. How to Compare Images and How to Write History?

In the present article, Augustine’s are closely examined in order to discover what the author was aiming at in writing this final correction of his own works. It turns out that the can, not surprisingly, be linked to his other autobiographical works, the Soliloquia and the Confessions. In the Soliloquia, Augustine examines the difference between true and false in the way he pictures himself. Next, in the Confessions, he continues to examine his own image and he discovers the role of grace: one can only rightly picture oneself with the aid of grace. Finally, in the Retractationes he reconsiders almost all his works and corrects the possibly false image these works might give of the author. He does so in particular by pretending that even in earlier periods the notion of grace was always the prevailing one in his writings. He surely may have written against the Manicheans, he may have insisted on the importance of the free will, but in fact he was already arguing against the Pelagians. Augustine changes his image for two reasons. Frist, he wants to rectify his own image so that the true one can be handed over to posterity. This is his wish to create his own reception. Secondly, he creates a new image that is based on the discovery of an interior image. It is this discovery that will allow him to make the autobiographical image also an essential part of his theology of image. It is the discovery that a personal view on one’s life may become the discovery of God’s view on his life and so the autobiographical image and the interior image become, once again, the tale of two stories, of two cities so to say, which reveal us the presence of the divine in our human existence.

Gerald P. Boersma, Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology

Gerald P. Boersma, Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology

Book Review: A Fresh Exploration of Augustine’s Theology of Image: Gerald P. Boersma, Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology

Book Review: A Fresh Exploration of Augustine’s Theology of Image: Gerald P. Boersma, <i>Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology</i>

Gerald Boersma, Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology

Gerald Boersma, <i>Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology</i>

Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology. By Gerald P. Boersma . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xi + 318 pp. $74.00 cloth.

Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology. By Gerald P. Boersma . Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xi + 318 pp. $74.00 cloth.

Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology . By Gerald P. Boersma.

<i>Augustine’s Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology</i> . By Gerald P. Boersma.

The Theology of Images in the Reformation

Church history has shown that the Gospel has been communicated and transmitted to people through artistic and technological media or ways such as architecture, music, paintings, calligraphy, drama, sculpture, movies, stained glass, etc. Moreover, in modern society, the visual image is increasing in positive value and meaning so that modern churches have used visual images such as films, pictures, and dramas as aids for preaching or worship. This contemporary circumstance calls for the pursuit and development of the positive theology of the image in Protestantism for our contemporary Protestant churches. However, the majority of Protestant churches and minsters seems to assume that there is only a negative perspective toward visual images in the theology of the Reformation. This assumption presents an obstacle to pursuing and finding a positive theology of images in order to use visual images for devotion and worship in Protestantism. With this context as a foundation, the objective of this study is to find a positive perspective of visual images in Protestant theologies. To this end, this article addresses the abuse of images in the late medieval period and then analyses three reformers’ perspective of image: Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. The first was the official initiator of the iconoclasm in the sixteenth–century Reformation and the latter two reformers have still exerted influence on our contemporary Protestant churches. This is the reason why I choose these three among the sixteenth–century reformers.

On the Threshold

This short paper (adapted from a part of my ma dissertation at King’s College London) explores the theology of images with reference to the devotional art of the Italian Renaissance, or, more precisely, to the painted image of Christ. The essay will aim to penetrate the theological theme of threshold – to show what it means to talk of crossing such thresholds and what it means to interact with such space. The thesis is that Christ literally becomes space, in timeless representation – the Incarnation drawing attention to the invisible God’s own visibility in the image of Christ.

A Brief Theology of Images of Jesus

A Brief Theology of Images of Jesus

In the Beginning is the Icon: A Liberative Theology of Images, Visual Arts and Culture by Sigurd Bergmann

<i>In the Beginning is the Icon: A Liberative Theology of Images, Visual Arts and Culture</i> by Sigurd Bergmann

In the Beginning Is the Icon: A Liberative Theology of Images, Visual Arts, and Culture by bergmann, sigurd

In the Beginning Is the Icon: A Liberative Theology of Images, Visual Arts, and Culture by bergmann, sigurd

The Art of Per Kirkeby in Relation to Important Aspects of Orthodox Theology of Images

The Art of Per Kirkeby in Relation to Important Aspects of Orthodox Theology of Images

John Calvin As Teacher, Pastor, And Theologian: The Shape Of His Writings And Thought. By Randall C. Zachman Image and Word in the Theology of John Calvin. By Randall C. Zachman

John Calvin As Teacher, Pastor, And Theologian: The Shape Of His Writings And Thought. By Randall C. Zachman Image and Word in the Theology of John Calvin. By Randall C. Zachman

The Theology of Image in Eastern Orthodoxy and John Calvin

His chapter title ‘Childish arguments for images at the Council of Nicaea (787)’, in John Calvin'sInstitutes of the Christian Religion, suggests the bitter and painful divisions that have arisen in the Church over the issue of image veneration. From Biblical through Patristic to Reformation times, Iconodule, Iconophile and Iconoclast dissension has remained unresolved. Calvin's 'disgust' at Nicaea IPs ‘absurdities’ and Orthodoxy's anathemas against Calvinist ‘heretics’ are symptomatic of the widespread disagreement and divergence in the Church over this fundamental question of the Faith.