Alexander Schmemann

4. Byzantium (22 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 5

As is almost always the case in the Church, acceptance and definition preceded the path of understanding; experience came before revelation in thought. Moreover, because the line dividing the Chalcedonian essence of icons from real idol-worship is exceedingly fine, the veneration of icons very soon became perverted in many places and took on improper forms. The seventh century, as already indicated, was simultaneously the time of astonishing fruits of Orthodox spirituality and of an indisputable coarsening of the mass of Christians. Among the latter the veneration of icons was sometimes marked by crude and sensual superstition. “Many think,” wrote St.
Anastasius of Sinai, “that he sufficiently reveres his baptism who, entering the church, kisses all the icons without paying any attention to the Liturgy and the divine service.”[21]

We hear of the custom of taking icons as godparents for one’s children, of adding paint scraped from icons to the Eucharistic wine, of laying the Sacrament upon an icon so as to receive it from a saint’s hand, and so on. Obviously, many practices involved a fundamental distortion; the honor paid to icons was often close to idol- worship, and the honoring of their material substance was permitted. In other words, the same thing occurred with the veneration of icons that had often happened earlier with the cult of the saints and the veneration of relics. Arising from sound Christological foundations as a product and revelation of the Church’s faith in Christ, too often they lost touch with this foundation and, changing into something self-contained, lapsed back into paganism.

But these distortions alone were not sufficient to create the profound and long- lasting iconoclastic movement. A subtle and theologically considered rejection of the whole concept of the icon developed, which forced the Church to further creative effort and theological contemplation.

 

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Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church: Table of Contents

Cf.  Books for getting closer to Orthodox Christianity ||| Orthodox Images of the Christ ||| Byzantium : The Alternative History of Europe ||| Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day ||| A History of the Byzantine Empire ||| Videos about Byzantium and Orthodoxy ||| Aspects of Byzantium in Modern Popular Music ||| 3 Posts on the Fall of Byzantium  ||| Greek Literature / The New Testament

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