L'icône, manifestation du monde spirituel
How can the material become the symbol of the immaterial? In iconography the problem is transferred to an essentially superior level — how can what belongs to created reality become the symbol of the divine? In fighting iconoclasm, the Fathers extended to the images that which they professed concern...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | French |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. Pontificia Univ. Gregoriana
1980
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| In: |
Gregorianum
Year: 1980, Volume: 61, Issue: 3, Pages: 539-554 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | How can the material become the symbol of the immaterial? In iconography the problem is transferred to an essentially superior level — how can what belongs to created reality become the symbol of the divine? In fighting iconoclasm, the Fathers extended to the images that which they professed concerning the humanity of Christ. Icons are blessed by prayers of the Church; it is prayer which is common to the paintings and to the faithful. The object of iconographic art is: 1. the teaching of truth; 2. the communication of grace. Pictures are a means by which dogmas are taught as they are considered spiritually. This spiritual vision requires that the painting be inspired by the Holy Spirit. The resultant human effort has as its end the discovery of a visible symbol for that which one has seen through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This cannot be a figment of the imagination, an unreal form, but on the contrary, a form of the concrete world which may become capable of channelling divine words, and thus be an expression of spiritual reality. Such is in fact the eschatological sense of all created things. Iconography is conscious that it is obliged to keep a « fast of the eyes »; that is to say, it must only use forms which can have this fully spiritual meaning and not others. The icon once painted serves the faithful as the starting-point of their ascent by three successive « visions », namely sensible, intellectual and spiritual. The idolatrous tendency is seen as a denial of this progression; one stops looking at the image, its sensible forms or its dogmatic import; what ensues is « simple knowledge ». The latter can only become spiritual by means of the « ecstatic force of love », through prayer, dialogue with him who is represented by the image. Veneration therefore crosses the divide between the human and the divine by turning the believer to people who live and reign in eternity. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Gregorianum
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