Statues?

[Orthodox Andrew]

Why don't we use them?

 

[Moros]

Graven images.

http://www.odox.net/Orthodox-History.htm

1 "Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God" (Lev 26:1). To this day, graven images (statues) are generally not used in the Orthodox Church, only painted icons.

 

[Orthodox Andrew]

Thanks, Osel, but I can't get the site to load.

 

[prodromos]

I don't think "graven images" is a fair description of statues as used in Catholic worship. Catholics certainly do not bow down to and worship statues but use them in exactly the same manner as we use icons.

I'll quote a bit from an article by Father Michael Azkoul on the differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy

Icons are more than sacred pictures. Everything about them is theological. For example, they are always flat, flat so that we who inhabit the physical world will understand that the world of the spirit where Christ, His Mother, the angels, the saints, and the departed dwell, is a world of mystery which cannot be penetrated by our five senses.

Customarily, Roman Catholicism has historically employed statues in its worship. The statues are life-like and three-dimensional. They seem to imitate the art of ancient Greece. Both arts are naturalistic. The Latins portray Christ, the Mother of God, the saints, even the angels, as if they were in a state of nature. This "naturalism" stems from the medieval idea that "grace perfects nature."

The person or persons are represented on the icon as deified. He or she is not a perfect human being, but much more: They are transfigured and glorified. They have a new and grace-filled humanity.

Important to remember is the Latin theory of grace: It is created by God for man. Orthodoxy teaches, as we recall, that grace is uncreated, and impacts all creation. It is a mysterious extension of the Divine Nature. Orthodox iconography reflects this truth, even as Roman Catholic statues reflect its idea of grace.

I hope it gives you a better understanding. I don't believe Orthodoxy rejects outright the use of statues in worship, but you have to admit that it is hard to depict non physical reality and theology with statues. I suspect their use may have influenced the corruption of the photostefano in Catholic iconography as they began depicting it as something in the physical realm instead of the spiritual.

John.

 

[Moros]

Thanks, Osel, but I can't get the site to load.

http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/pocket_church_history.htm

 

[Oblio]

I thought it was because they were hard to clean

 

[Orthodox Andrew]

Thanks all. Now I understand.

 

[Photini]

http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/pocket_church_history.htm

Thanks for that link Osel. This is something that I found interesting. Is the comment that the stigmata is also found among Muslims true?

Rapid changes were sweeping through the West, changes which have prompted one historian to comment that an early Christian would have felt at home in the Western Church of the 11th century, but out of place in that of the 12th century. A new emphasis was being placed on emotions in the spiritual life, a trend which only gathered steam throughout the Middle Ages and resulted in such fantastical phenomena as stigmata (the appearance of wounds said to be like Christ’s on the bodies of those in an ecstatic or trance state).1 Another result was that the centrality of the Resurrection of Christ came to be usurped by an emphasis on the Death of Christ. In popular devotion, Christ was approached more as a suffering fellow-man than as the God-Man. In art, the mystical iconography which had emphasized Divine qualities and theologically instructed the people came more and more to be replaced by passionate art,2 which depicted in a familiar, worldly, realistic manner events of great joy or pathos in the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints.
1 The stigmata phenomenon dates back to the early 13th c. in the Roman church and is found in the Muslim and Anglican faiths, but not in Holy Orthodoxy.

2 The most pertinent examples of this trend are the gaunt and grotesque crucifixes of the 14th century.

 

[prodromos]

Is the comment that the stigmata is also found among Muslims true?

I have had a bit of a search on the net. Though I haven't found any solid references, there is mention of moslems bearing stigmata which correspond to the wounds Mohammed received in battle.

John.