This is post 4 of 5 in the series “The Icon: Sign of Unity or Division?” (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) What Is It a Sign of? Among Western Christians, there is a very clear interest in icons. Following Orthodox Christians themselves, certain Catholics and Protestants have rediscovered canonical icons, that is, Christian images […]
At the beginning of this story is my bishop, fittingly also the man who received me into the Orthodox Church when he was still a parish priest. He asked me if I could carve an “engolpion” – a large pendant worn by bishops, usually bearing an icon of The Virgin and Child. He asked […]
Beauty cannot compel, but it can call. Liturgical art and worship, when well executed, is a fragrance of paradise that beckons us to find its divine source. In this article I want to discuss one particular role of liturgical art: to help open the eye of our heart, or the nous as it is called […]
The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies will be holding their 13th annual summer school course at Westminster College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, July 22-27. The course is called “The Icon: A Bridge Between East and West”. The schedule features several talks and events. The speakers are an exemplary group of scholars, including the renowned Orthodox theologian, Metropolitan […]
This is post 3 of 5 in the series “The Icon: Sign of Unity or Division?” (read Part 1 and Part 2) Some Other Points The Silence of the New Testament To support their theological arguments, the iconoclasts said that the silence of the New Testament on the question of Christian images supports their rejection […]
This is post 2 of 12 in the series “An Icon of the Kingdom of God” Part 2: On Iconography (Continued from here) Much has been written about icons, yet for many their liturgical purpose remains obscure. This is because icons are usually studied in themselves and not as a component of the complete experience […]
This is post 2 of 5 in the series “The Icon: Sign of Unity or Division?” (Continued from here) “The honor [or insult] given to an image rebounds onto the person represented.” This well-known sentence comes from a work of St. Basil the Great On the Holy Spirit 18, 45 where he talks about the relation between […]
This is post 1 of 5 in the series “The Icon: Sign of Unity or Division?” When we think about ecumenism and the problems that keep Christian Churches from healing the schisms between them, we rarely think about Christian art: neither as a bone of contention nor as a point of unity. Historically, during the […]
This is post 1 of 12 in the series “An Icon of the Kingdom of God” The liturgical art of the Orthodox Church offers the world nothing less than a vision of the Kingdom of God. There can be no higher calling for art than this. Liturgical art is the combined effort of apostles and […]
This is post 1 of 3 in the series “The Recovery of The Arts” (This post is the first of a series of three. Part 2. Part 3) We would like to welcome you to the Orthodox Arts Journal. We hope that this space will be a tribute to a skill and a form […]