T
Thekla
Guest
Hope it's not intrusive, but thought to jump in with personal experience:
Christians read and re-read the Scriptures, and I would think all do so because of the spiritual benefit, and thus they deem it necessary to do so.
(Even John Chrysostom exhorts on the necessity of reading the Holy Scriptures, well over a thousand years ago).
Some Christians can't read - whether a temporary or permanent condition.
The written text requires certain biologically based skill-sets (having developed the ability to walk, sight, short-term visual memory, etc.) to decipher; it builds one concept at a time (word) to more and more complex concept clusters (phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc.)
Our son has Schizoaffective disorder; for a long time his brain was so affected, he could not recall the previous sentence when reading the next sentence; with more complex concepts the problem would occur phrase to phrase. We could only speak with him in the shortest amount of information possible, else the whole conveyance would be lost. Even when he did "get" what we said, his understanding was often 'garbled' (distorted). But show him an icon of a Biblical event, or Christ, or a Saint he knew of -- then, he could tell us a great deal of information about what was depicted. Certainly more than he could have done by hearing or reading of the same.
Pictorial representation does not convey information by building in a linear, logical fashion. The pictorial denotes a "simultaneous delivery" which sources different parts of the brain than does reading. Information can be added through verbal means, including question and answer -- in small bites if needed, but even then the pictorial provides a mnemonic template for association and retrieval of information.
Even for readers, the icon presents information in a different but rich form.
As the icon is typically heavily stylized, it is not easily mistaken for secular art forms and subjects. Its symbolism can be easily explained with few words.
Christ is for all people - including those who cannot (or cannot yet) read.
The Church thus serves all - readers and non-readers, all intellectual abilities, learning styles ...
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