ST. INNOCENT/

FIREBIRD

Videos, Audios & Books

Producers of Educational Materials about the Orthodox Faith and Cultures

14 Years of Service: 1992-2006

WHY ICONS?

    Sometimes people think that there is no substantive difference between the "religious art" of non-Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox icons --- they are both "nice", but not essential to the Faith.  Nothing could be further from the truth from the Orthodox perspective.  For Orthodoxy, icons are in a totally different category from non-Orthodox "religious art."  Indeed, this latter "religious art" is not essential to Roman Catholicism or Protestantism.  But that does not mean that the same is true for Orthodox Christianity.

    On the contrary, the sacred images of the Orthodox Church, called "icons," are absolutely necessary to Orthodoxy.  Why is this so?  The answer is really quite simple, yet at the same time, as with all Truth, is very profound.  Icons are essential to the Orthodox Faith, because:

(1) they affirm the Incarnation of Christ;

(2) they affirm the goodness of the material world that God created;

(3) and they affirm that the physical world has the potential for being transfigured and resurrected, as it participates in the restoration of humanity to the beauty of the Divine Image and Likeness.

    "Why icons?" and "What are Icons?" are two very similar questions.  Sometimes it is difficult to succinctly define "What are icons?"  But let us try. 

    Learning to read the language of authentic Orthodox icons, so that all these qualities of icons can be discerned, is a most rewarding endeavor. In some of our FIREBIRD books and videos, we hope to aid people who wish to learn more about understanding the language of icons.  But it isn't really all about a cognitive effort.  Rather, learning the language of icons, in essence, involves expressing in words what is encountered and experienced by the heart, or, to put it differently, it involves projecting into the mind what the heart already knows.  One might say that the process of learning the language of icons is an act of "uniting the heart and the mind;" it is a process of both "bringing the mind into the heart," together with the reverse procedure of "bringing the heart into the mind."  But, we wish to emphasize, that the Orthodox faithful do not USE icons (despite what some contemporary Westerners try to popularize); we ENCOUNTER icons; we EXPERIENCE icons. This encounter is experienced by the HEART, not the MIND. The Western mentality is that nothing is of value if it cannot be USED. The Orthodox mentality emphasizes that value is based on what a thing (or a person) IS, not, how it can be USED.

FOR NUMEROUS EXAMPLES OF ICONS, SEE OUR OTHER ARTICLES, ESPECIALLY OUR SAINTS' LIVES ARTICLES.

If you would like to pursue these ideas further, in addition to reading our other FIREBIRD Articles, you would probably be interested in the FIREBIRD Books, The Artistic Unity of the Russian Orthodox Church (product #47), and The Orthodox Church's Vision of Unity (product #45).

This article was written by Jane M. deVyver, M.Th., Ph.D., and the photo is by the author. 
The icon at the top was painted/written by Fr. Theodore Jurewicz, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and is located in St. Innocent of Irkutsk Orthodox Church in Redford, Michigan.

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to webmaster@firebirdvideos.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1998 FIREBIRD Videos, Audios & Books
Last modified: December 04, 2006