PAINTING GOD

A short response to a few of the points raised by by Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) who serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai in this video

https://youtu.be/_ytYX4dXpRo?si=cMWXP56lYZDgR6yJ

Orthodox icons in Catholic Churches...

Orthodox icons are rarely signed, but western liturgical art is often about the artist. This is a big difference between east and west, but many contemporary iconographers feel uncomfortable not signing their name on the front as they would with any other painting. What should we make of this difference?

The Byzantine icon is the 'gold medal' winner of liturgical art.

The Catholic Church has a clear head and identity: the pope, with a single, vast organisation centred on the Vatican. But what about the Orthodox Church? Is it more accurate to say Orthodox Churches? A slight diversion to clarify terms.

The medieval mind was pushed aside with the rise of humanism with catestrophic conseqences for icons both east and west, which the recent renewal of iconography is finally challenging.

Liturgical art is at home in the medieval mindset. Humanistic rationalism less so. Some thoughts on the issues we face when trying to understand what the authors of the 7th Ecumenical Council were getting at, and how to understand liturgy and its art for the Church today.

The iconoclast controversy produced two notable theologians, one of whom is St Theodore of the Studion monastery, who helped the Church to understand how images can avoid being idols and work effectively in Christian worship. Theodore explored how images work with the human capacity of fantasia... what we might translate as 'imagination'. We take a look at what he says in this episode.

What do we mean by describing a painting as a Byzantine icon? Can icons be painted only in that style? Listen in for a clarification of some terms that can often seem very confusing!

What does the Church deem essential for an image to be an icon? And why did the Byzantine Church need to re-invent iconography while the west did not? Explore these topics in this episode delving into the 7th Ecumenical Council and the distinctions in church art between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.