Monday, November 28, 2022

Excerpts from Sergius Bulgakov (EO) "Icons and the Name of God" affirming the Veneration of the Icon, not Heavenly Proto-type, Merely

The following comes from Sergius Bulgakov, Icons and the Name of God (trans. Boris Jakim; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2012)

 

Divine energy radiates from the icon of Christ, just as it does from the Divine Name Jesus. The icon is not just a picture, and the Name of God is not just a word: they are modes in which this Divine energy radiates into us. (Translator’s Introduction, p. vii)

 

The veneration of icons was legitimized in the Church by the decree accepted in the seventh act of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. (p. 1)

 

In order to deflect completely the accusation of idolatry, the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council sought a dogmatic expression for the special form of icon veneration that would distinguish it from the veneration of God Himself. The dogmatic terms used there were service, latreia, with respect to God; and reverent veneration, timētikē proskunēsis, with respect to icons. “Kissing, veneration, and reverence, but in no wise that true service which in our faith is appropriate to the divine essence alone . . . because the honor bestowed upon the icon refers to its proto-image and one who venerates the icon venerates the hypostasis of the one portrayed on it” (Acts of the Council, p. 285). Therefore, the distinction here is connected with the ideality of the image, in contrast to the reality of the proto-image. However, this consideration can be complemented by the further consideration that the image itself on the icon acquires a certain reality, i.e., that it becomes the place of the gracious presence of Christ, listening to the prayer offered to Him. And precisely this positively grounds the “reverent veneration” (through kissing, bowing, the lighting of candles, censing) that characterizes icons but that is of course impossible in relation to religious pictures or in relation to icons before they are sanctified. Reverent veneration is based on the connection between image and Proto-image, on a certain identity between the two, but the distinction between image and Proto-image limits this veneration, distinguishing it from the veneration of latreia offered to the Proto-image itself. The veneration of latreia is appropriate to the Holy Gifts too, as the mysterious appearance of the Lord Himself; however, for the sake of accuracy it must be added that, though it was left unarticulated at the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the concept of latreia as the veneration of God does admit further definition within its own limits. The latreia that is offered to the Holy Gifts is of course nevertheless different from the veneration of the Lord Himself (cf. Matt. 28:17: “And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him”; Rev. 1:7: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him . . . and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him”). However, this distinction lies beyond the doctrine of the icon. (pp. 89-90)

 

 Further Reading:


Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons