Have you ever felt the impulse to just tear it all down? Iconoclasm — or image breaking — has real potency as a way of contesting the sacred and re-imagining the world, even in a post-religious society. From the Byzantines to Sinead O'Connor, iconoclasm remains an almost universal form of protest.

Philip Jenkins is Professor of history at Baylor University in the United States, and co-director for Baylor's Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World.

Vrasidas Karalis is Professor of Byzantine and modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney.

Frances Di Lauro is an interdisciplinary scholar and Associate Professor at the University of Sydney with a background in archaeology, religious studies and writing.

Further links:

• Listen to Soul Search, Icons and iconoclasts part 1.
• Soul Search: Philip Jenkins on how climate shocks drive religious change.