Image Worship

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the worship of images, or worship with their aid. Image worship is sometimes used as a synonym for idolatry, sometimes as meaning the worship of images as symbols, or, as in Roman Catholic theology, cultus sacrarum imaginum (veneration of holy images). Sometimes it refers particularly to the use of icons in the Eastern Church. According to Tertullian, Christians were known as "worshipers of the cross" and the image of the Good Shepherd was on the chalices. The tombs of the Christians in the Roman catacombs, many of which are of a date anterior to Constantine, frequently have graven upon them representations of the Dove, of the Cross, of the symbolical Fish, of Moses striking the rock, of Jonah, of Daniel in the lions' den, of the apostles Peter and Paul, and above all, of the Good Shepherd. It was only after the establish ment of Christianity anity under Constantine that statues and pictures of the Saviour, of the Virgin Mary, and the Saints were commonly introduced in churches. It was usual not only to keep lights and burn incense before the images, but to kiss them reverently, and to kneel down and pray before them. This use of images by Christians was alleged as an obstacle to the conversion of the Jews and as one of the causes of the progress of Mohammedanism; and the devotion described above provoked the reaction of Iconoclasm. See ICONOCLAST. In the second Council of Nice (787) the doctrine as to veneration of images was carefully laid down. A distinction was drawn between the supreme worship of adoration, which is called latreia, and the inferior worship of honor or reverence, called douleia. The second Council of Nice declared that the worship to be paid to images is not the supreme worship of latreia, but only the inferior worship of douleia; and also that it is not absolute, and is not rendered to the images themselves, but relative-i. e., only addressed through them, or by occasion of them, to the original which they represent. At the Reformation the protesting party generally rejected the use of images as an unscriptural novelty, and stigmatized their employment in worship as s as superstitious and even idolatrous. The The Zwinglian, and subsequently the Calvinistic stic Churches, entirely repudiated repud all use of images for the purposes of worship. Luther, on the contrary, while he condemned the worship of images, regarded the simple use of them even in the church for the purpose of instruction and as incentives to faith, and to devotion as one of those indifferent things which may be permitted. In the modern Anglican Church the practice is still a subject of controversy. In the Presbyterian Church and in all the other Protestant communions images are entirely unknown, though figures of patron saints and eminent Churchmen have occasionally been set up. In the Greek Orthodox Church the images (icons) are paintings, bas-reliefs, or mosaics, often richly adorned with jewels. The Council of Trent (1545-63) renews the Nicene distinction between absolute and relative worship; the latter of which alone it sanctions or permits; and it contends for the great advantage, especially in the case of rude and unlearned people, to be drawn from the use of pictures and statues in the churches. In many foreign churches, especially in Italy, in southern Germany, and in France, are to be found images which are popularly reputed as especially sacred, and to which, or to prayers offered before which, miraculous effects are ascribed.