Icons & Sacred Art
62 writings in Icons & Sacred Art. Clear
Icons & Sacred Art
Church Etiquette: Reverencing Icons
How to venerate an icon or relic, where to kiss it, and when not to go up.
Icons & Sacred Art
What are icons?
Icons are windows into heaven. That’s not poetry, it’s what they actually are. When you walk into an Orthodox church, you’ll see them everywhere. Christ…
Icons & Sacred Art
Why do Orthodox Christians use icons?
We use icons because God became visible. When the Word became flesh, the invisible God entered history in a body you could see and touch.…
Icons & Sacred Art
Isn’t using icons idolatry?
No. Icons aren’t idols, and we don’t worship them. We venerate them, which is different. When an Orthodox Christian kisses an icon of Christ or…
Icons & Sacred Art
What is the difference between worship and veneration?
We worship God alone. We venerate icons, saints, and holy things. The difference goes to the heart of how Orthodox Christians understand our relationship with…
Icons & Sacred Art
What does veneration of icons actually mean?
When you venerate an icon, you’re greeting a person. You kiss the icon, bow before it, light a candle, or make the sign of the…
Icons & Sacred Art
Why was there an iconoclast controversy?
The iconoclast controversy happened because Byzantine emperors in the eighth and ninth centuries decided that icons were idols and tried to destroy them. The Church…
Icons & Sacred Art
What did the Seventh Ecumenical Council say about icons?
The Seventh Ecumenical Council settled the question: icons can be made and venerated. Not worshiped. Venerated. There’s a difference, and the bishops who gathered at…
Icons & Sacred Art
How are icons different from religious paintings?
An icon isn’t just a religious painting. It’s a window into heaven, a theological statement in color, and a means of grace used in prayer…
Icons & Sacred Art
Why do icons look so different from realistic art?
Icons aren’t trying to show you what someone looked like on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon. They’re showing you what that person looks like now, transfigured…
Icons & Sacred Art
What is the theology behind icon writing?
Icons aren’t religious art. They’re theology you can see. When we write icons, and we do say “write,” not paint, we’re doing something closer to…
Icons & Sacred Art
Why are icons called ‘written’ instead of ‘painted’?
Icons are written because they communicate the Church’s faith in visual form, just as Scripture communicates it in words. Both are ways of proclaiming the…
