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.

The Byzantine empire was consumed by the conflict over the use of images in Christian worship, but how serious was it within the Byzantine Church, and how important was the role of the papacy in preserving the Traditon of venerating images which the iconoslasts wanted to destroy?

Continuin to answer Judy's question about the style of religious painting suitable for veneration in a Catholic Church, we dive into the 7th Ecumenical Council and the civl war that rocked the Byzantine empire over the question of images in the Church.

Icons are part of Orthodoxy's DNA, but what about icons in the Catholic Church? A quick start to our new series exploring the limits for painting icons in the Catholic Church.

Do we 'write' icons? Many people in the Anglosphere make a special point of distinguishing how icons are made by refusing to say 'paint' and insisting on using the word 'write'.

But is this correct?

Here two of the world's leading iconographers, Orthodox George Kordis from Greece and Catholic Ivan Polverari from Italy, join Ian to delve into the real issues behind the controversy...

This exchange, which is an extract from a much longer conversation recorded in 2021 (you can watch in full here: https://youtu.be/S-zX0osYW5o) is a great way to get this new podcast off the ground, and set the scene for the approach we will be taking in future episodes!