Idolatry Vs. The Use Of Icons

The representation of features beyond human experiences has a long history since ancient times. In the Old Testament, under the Ten Commandments, God prohibits the use of images to represent God, an act that is described as idolatry. However, in the contemporary understanding of the use of icons and images, people have tried to justify their use through the representation of what is invisible. According to Freedberg, there is a clear difference between idolatry and the use of icons. In his argument, Freedberg states that there is no writing without image and therefore people cannot do away with images and icons. The images are different from the exact original creature or God in this context. Therefore, as John of Damascus expresses ‘I venerate

Being realistic, just as it is safe for children to have an image depiction of the texts they read, it is also salient for the worshippers to have a pictorial representation of the divine being, whom they worship; the representation mean veneration before the invisible God. The narrative dimension of the church that is a characteristic of the Bible stories like the Exodus book is laced by the ritual aspect, which is characterized by certain practical activities in the church. For example, the sacrament activity in Roman Catholic Church is a symbolic feast that Jesus partook with his disciples. If indeed narratives should be laced by practical ceremonies in the church, then the iconoclasts would be so wrong in the destruction of images (Barber 16). An image is a representation whose first appearance in time and place is removed, and therefore an image can never be an exact representation but an artwork that complements the original text. Additionally, people would not have fear for images if they were not so important to them. Therefore, the fact that images mean so much in understanding what is hard to visualize, makes people view them with great fear. More figurative images than the text should be created rather than images than put people at the danger of idol worshipping. So, people should commute the perspective of images as so fearful but as being informative to written theories about the existence of the deity and all aspects of life from divine power. (Morgan