The question of whether images, especially of God and Jesus, may be used in worship has always been a important question in the church, with iconoclasts (lit., breakers of images) opposing their use and iconodules (from Greek, douleia, 'service) advocating them.
The debate became especially heated in what is called the Iconoclastic Controvery, a series of violent debates over the the place of icons or "images" in worship that took place in the Byzantine Church between 726 and 843.
The controvery began when emperor Leo III (717-741) issued a decree to detroy all the images in the church, a policy that was maintained by his successor. Iconoclasm, however, was condemned and outlawed by the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea in 787 but rejected by the Council of Frankfurt in 794. The controversy ended when the use of icons were restored in 843 and icons have remained a standard practice of the Eastern church.
Advocates of the use of icons in worship make a distinction between three-dimensional statutes, which are considered idols, and two-dimensional icons which are not, but are aids that bring the worshipper into direct contact with the person of God depicted in them. The inclination towards the use of icons in worship is significantly determined by cultural attitudes, and by and large, icons have never really caught on in the rest of the church.
©ALBERITH
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