- Author: The Doctrine Committee of the Scottish Episcopal Church
- Price: £3.00
- Published: 2005
The relationship between Christianity and visual images has historically been uneasy. The theologian George Pattison has written that "the spirit of Christian iconoclasm [that is, image-breaking] is, indeed, pervasive, and if it does not lead to the actual banning of images it creates an almost universal attitude of suspicion and denigration."
The point is certainly debatable, and the argument is ancient, stretching back in the Christian Church at least to the so-called Iconoclastic Controversy of c.727-842 CE, which had monumental consequences in the later splitting of Western Christianity from the Church of the Byzantine Empire - a split which remains effectively with us today. At the same time the power of the visual image has been enormous throughout the history of the Church, and remains highly pertinent to theological debate and Christian spirituality to this day. The theologian Austin Farrer once spoke of the "irreducible images" in Christianity, and whatever the status of the great and enduring images of Christianity may now be in contemporary society, there is no doubt of the continuing 'power of images', to take the title of a major book by the art historian David Freedberg.
As Freedberg dramatically expresses it: "People are sexually aroused by pictures and sculptures; they break pictures and sculptures; they mutilate them, kiss, cry before them, and go on journeys to them; they are calmed by them, stirred by them, and incited to revolt. They give thanks by means of them, expect to be elevated by them, and are moved to the highest levels of empathy and fear."
Above all, perhaps, art can be redemptive - but from what and for what? Certainly the interest in images in the church is perhaps now more energetic than at any earlier period: witness the immense importance of the millennium exhibition at the National Gallery in London, Seeing Salvation, and its catalogue by Gabrieli Finaldi, The Image of Christ (2000). Witness, too, the public controversy in Durham Cathedral some years ago when the American artist Bill Viola's video installation The Messenger, an image of a naked man, was shown. What is clear, however, is that images are argued about in the Church not only because of what they show, but also because of how they convey their messages. The theologian John Drury describes Christian paintings thus: "Composition, colour, contents (including architecture and landscape as well as figures) and the ways in which the paint itself is handled - all are treated as part and parcel of their religious meanings."
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This publication can be ordered online from the Cornerstone Bookshop, Edinburgh, or ordered from the Scottish Episcopal Church General Synod Office. Please note that orders outwith the UK must be made through the Cornerstone Bookshop.
