Many modern
Catholic apologists seem to have a naïve and mistaken view of the Catholic (and
Eastern Orthodox) dogmas relating to the veneration of images. Some seem to
believe that the debate about images and Second Nicea revolves around whether
it is proper to have religious images/statues/icons (e.g., Reezay and many “pop
level” apologists). Notwithstanding, this is false. I have discussed this in a
number of articles, quoting Catholic theologians (e.g., Bellarmine) and sources
(e.g., the 1917 Code of Canon Law) showing that, in Catholic theology, the
image itself, not the saint in heaven it represents, is given some form of
veneration and such is Catholic dogma. See:
Note the
following examples of Second Nicea (787) affirming that it is not just the
prototype in heaven that receives veneration (whether latria, dulia, or in the
case of Mary, hyper-dulia), but the image itself:
Second
Session:
Now at least we confidently make the
following request: just as we, as we received from the holy fathers and the
most approved pontiffs who preceded us, depict the narratives of divine
scripture in the churches as a reminder of pious operation and to instruct the
ignorant and place in the church of God the sacred image of the Lord God and
Saviour Jesus Christ in his incarnate human form and also represent and venerate
those of his holy mother and of the blessed apostles, prophets, martyrs and
confessors, on account of our love of them, so too may your most clement imperial
power bring about a parity with our orthodox faith in the regions of Greece, so
that, as scripture says, there may be one flock and fold fond. For throughout the world, wherever
Christianity exists these sacred images remain and are honoured by all the
faithful, so that our minds with spiritual desire may through a visible
face be lifted up to the invisible majesty of the Godhead through beholding the
represented image, accorded to the flesh that the Son of God deigned to assume
for our salvation. It is he whom we
worship as our redeemer in heaven and praise and glorify in the Spirit, because
as scripture says, ‘God is Spirit,’ and for this reason we worship his Godhead
spiritually. God forbid that we should deify the images, as some babble,
but in every way we offer the affection and devotion that we have in love of
God and of his saints. We have the images just as we have the books of divine
scripture, to prompt veneration, while we preserve the purity of our faith. (The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea
(787): Translated with Notes and an Introduction [trans. Richard Price;
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020], 161 [note the interpretation of “spirit”
in John 4:24 and how it relates to worship, not the ontological makeup of God’s
essential being per se)
Third
Session:
Together with them [previous local councils] we also venerate and embrace the holy and
venerable images, namely of God the Word, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who became man for our sake and took the form of a servant. His image and
representation do not bear the stamp of the Godhead that is inseparably united
to his immaculate flesh—but when we
paint the image of his manhood we venerate it; for, although he was God and
invisible, he appeared and was seen on earth and dwelt among men, and underwent
exhaustion, hunger and thirst by the law of our nature that he put on. We
venerate the image of Christ, that is, the outward form that was seen by men,
though not separated from his invisible Godhead (perish the thought!) but
united to it in a perfect assumption. For even if he said to the Jews, ‘Why do
you want to kill me, a man who has told you the truth?’, he was not only man
but also Go. And when he said, ‘I and my Father are one,’ he did not deny our
nature, for he uttered this with a human mouth and the organ of a tongue. We also honour and venerate the image of
the one who gave birth to him ineffably, his immaculate mother the holy
Theotokos and our wholly unblemished Lady. We should also honour the images of
the holy apostles, prophets, victorious martyrs, the saints and the righteous,
as friends of God, not worshipping the material and the colours, but being
led through them by the eyes of the mind to the prototype and paying honour to that, knowing, according to Basil the
Great, that ‘honour paid to the image passes over to the prototype’. (Ibid.,
227)
Fourth
Session
If we kiss
the images of our Lord and Saviour, and of his immaculate mother, truly
Theotokos, and of his saints, it is not with the same disposition of mind or the same faith in
them: for we know the first of these to be God without beginning or end,
holding all things in his hands as the maker of ourselves and the whole
creation and to be truly God the Savior, with authority in heaven and on earth,
who truly became man for the sake of the human race . . . (Ibid., 337; note
that, while acknowledging veneration of the person and image of Jesus is higher
than of Saints [the latria/dulia distinction], the Fourth Session
affirms veneration of the images of Mary and the Saints)
Seventh
Session
For it is to the extent that they [Jesus,
Mary, and the Saints] are constantly seen through depiction in images that
those who behold them [the images] are spurred to remember and yearn for their
prototypes. They are to be accorded greeting and the veneration of honour, not
indeed the true worship corresponding to our faith, which pertains to the
divine nature alone, but in the same way as this is accorded to the figure of
the honourable and life-giving cross, to the holy gospels, and to other sacred
offerings. In their honour an offering of incensation and lights is to be made,
in accordance with the pious custom of the men of old. For the honour paid to
the image passes over to the prototype, and whoever venerates the image in it
the hypostasis of the one who is represented. (Ibid., 565)
The
following comment, from the Seventh Session, shows how dangerous and (to be
blunt) blasphemous the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox dogma truly is:
We accept the sacred images. We subject those
who do not believe accordingly to anathema. To those who apply the sacred
images the sayings in divine scripture against idols anathema! (Ibid., 577)
In other
words, one is condemned of preaching a false gospel and excommunicated if one
accepts the Bible’s teachings about veneration of images (an attitude the
earliest Christians held to, such as Athenagoras of Athens [discussed in my
listing of articles linked above]). This only shows how far those at Second
Nicea in 787 (and modern adherents thereto) have strayed from the true gospel,
and highlights why this is such an important issue.
