Abstract

Since the beginning of Christianity, Christians have been faced with the ambiguous nature of "image" and the risk of idolatry. Is Christian art fundamentally blasphemous? Are not icons 'idols' and are they not prohibited in the Old Testament? Those were the questions aggressively put forward by the Christian iconoclasts of the eighth century in a hostile controversy. The iconoclasts (those who fought against use of icons) stated that every image must be identical with its prototype; therefore, an icon is an idol since it pretends to be God. For the iconodules (those who venerate icons) the icons are not idols because icons are not consubstantial with or identical to their prototypes. My focus in this research is to explore the reception of scripture---specifically the Gospels in the icons of the Eastern Tradition. The first part, of my thesis "Short history of icons," offers a brief overview of the history of the icons in the first seven centuries of Christianity, and presents the dispute between iconoclasts and iconodules. The second part, "The Gospels in Icons according to the Eastern Orthodox Tradition" describes eight icons from historical, aesthetical and liturgical points of view. In my research I attempt to explain the icons as a convergence of the canonical Gospels, apocrypha writings and liturgical texts. In the Conclusion I stress the connection between icon and Incarnation in the context of today's Orthodoxy. The Orthodox Church endeavored to direct the human senses, including sight in its use of icons, in faith to the greater knowledge and glorification of God