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Early Christian Attitudes toward Images

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In Early Christian Attitudes toward Images, Fr. Steven slowly and meticulously picks apart the arguments put forward by modern scholars (most of them Protestants) in support of the hostility theory, carefully exposing the false assumptions, the deliberate misreadings, and the many internal contradictions. Perhaps one of the most important points that Fr. Steven makes in this book is that it is absurd and futile to try to find exact answers to 8th (and, later, 16th) century questions in the 1st-3rd centuries. Iconodules and iconoclasts are both mistaken if they think they can find anyone in the early Church with exactly their iconology. What is possible, though, and very important as well, is to find the seeds of one or the other in the early Church. Whichever seeds you find will tell you which is the flower that was planted and which is the weed that needs to be uprooted and removed far from the garden. That is exactly what Fr. Steven Bigham does in this book. I do recommend a read.

This book contains, I believe, all the questions (and hopefully the answers) that I as an Evangelical seeker am looking for in regard to icons in the Orthodox Church.

My study of the Ante Nicene Church and Her doctrine regarding what and where the Church is has led me to the conclusion that the Orthodox Church is the True Church of Christ established by Him and His Apostles and would never fail, but be visible and continue until the end. To the Early Church this visibility was shown through Apostolic Succession and by this were the Sacraments made efficacious and salvific.

I will write for you what the back of the book says as there is very little information about this book on the web and I only knew it was what I was looking for because of another reviewer on www.Amazon.com. I have not as yet read the book myself, but I am very excited about it.

For all iconophiles, that is, those who accept the dogma of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, but especially the Orthodox who claim that the icon has a sacramental and mystical character, it is naturally disquieting to hear the claim that the early Christians were aniconic and iconophobic. If this claim is true, the theology and the veneration of the icon are seriously undermined. It is, therefore, natural for iconophiles to attempt to disprove the thesis according to which the early Christians had no images whatsoever (aniconic) because they believed them to be idols (iconophobic). It is equally natural for iconophiles to want to substantiate, as much as this is possible, their deep intuition that the roots of Christian iconography go back to the apostolic age. This study weakens the notion and credibility of the alleged hostility of the early Christians to non-idolatrous images, providing a more balanced evaluation of this question.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Fr. Steven Bigham is an Orthodox priest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the Carpatho-Russian Diocese. He teaches in the program Certificat en théologie orthodoxe (Certificate in Orthodox Theology) at the Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec). He specializes in iconology (history and theology of icons). He has authored several books and articles on the subject. Fr. Steven is married and has two children.

Table of Contents:

Preface

I. The Theory of the Early Christians' Hostility Toward Images
1. Aniconic and Iconophobic
2. Icon, Idol and the Hostility Theory
3. Absolute or Relative Prohibition
4. The Argument from Tradition

II. The Jewish Attitudes Toward Images
1. Introduction
2. A Theoretical Framework
3. The Application of the Hypothesis: The Old Testament
4. The Illuminated Bible
5. Between the Exile and Herod the Great
6. From Herod the Great to the Destruction of the Temple: Josephus and Philo
7. After the Destruction of the Temple: Rabbinical Judaism

III. The Early Christian Images
1. Introduction
2. The New Testament
3. Traditions Relating to the New Testament
4. The Pro-Constantinian Literature
5. The Archaeological Monuments

IV. Eusebius of Caesarea and Christian Images
1. Introduction
2. At Paneas, the Statue of Christ and the Woman with a Hemorrhage: The History of the Church VII, XVIII
3. At Paneas, the Statue of Christ and the Woman with a Hemorrhage: Commentary on Luke 8:43-48
4. The Image of the Three Visitors to Abraham: The Proof of the Gospel
5. The Cross in the Hand of a Statue of Constantine: The History of the Church IX, IX, 10
6. A Cross in the Hand of a Statue of Constantine: The Life of Constantine I, XI
7. Rejection of Christ's Image: The Letter to Constantia
8. Evidence from the Life of Constantine
9. Analysis of the Data
10. Conclusion

Annex: Texts in Translation

Index

About the Author:
Fr. Steven Bigham is an Orthodox priest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the Carpatho-Russian Diocese. He teaches in the program Certificat en théologie orthodoxe (Certificate in Orthodox Theology) at the Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec). He specializes in iconology (history and theology of icons). He has authored several books and articles on the subject. Fr. Steven is married and has two children.