What is iconoclasm

Some historians believe that by prohibiting icons, the Emperor sought to integrate Muslim and Jewish populations. Both Muslims and Jews perceived Christian images that existed from the earliest times of Christianity as idols and in direct opposition to the Old Testament prohibition of visual representations. The first commandment states,. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth.

You shall not adore them, nor serve them Exodus —5. Another theory suggests that the prohibition was an attempt to restrain the growing wealth and power of the monasteries. They produced the icons and were a primary target of the violence of the Iconoclastic Controversy. Other scholars offer a less political motive, suggesting that the prohibition was primarily religious, an attempt to correct the wayward practice of worshiping images.

There is no one simple answer to this complex event. What we do know is that the prohibition essentially caused a civil war which shook the political, social and religious spheres of the empire. The conflict pitted the emperor and certain high church officials patriarchs, bishops who supported iconoclasm, against other bishops, lower clergy, laity and monks, who defended the icons.

New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, See on MetPublications. Byzantium: Faith and Power — Karlin-Hayter, Patricia. New York: Oxford University Press, Pelikan, Jaroslav. Washington, D. Pentcheva, Bissera V. Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Visiting The Met? Madonna and Child Berlinghiero. The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke.

Icon with Saint Demetrios. Icon with the Crucifixion. Icon with the Koimesis. Medallion with Christ from an Icon Frame. Examples of iconoclast in a Sentence notorious as an iconoclast , that music critic isn't afraid to go after sacred cows.

Recent Examples on the Web Soon-Shiong likes to present himself as an intellectual iconoclast , fighting a lonely war against the establishment. Hager as an iconoclast who abhorred medical bureaucracies and liked to deflate their pretensions. Hagerty, WSJ , 21 Oct. Chow, Time , 20 Aug. First Known Use of iconoclast , in the meaning defined at sense 2.

Learn More About iconoclast. Time Traveler for iconoclast The first known use of iconoclast was in See more words from the same year. Listen to Our Podcast About iconoclast. Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox! Sign Up. Word of the Day have a heart of gold. Blog Outsets and onsets! Read More. November 08, To top. Sign up for free and get access to exclusive content:.

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