Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ph.D. in Philosophy of Art, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This paper is going to draw a comparison between pagan and Christian apologies for holy images. To this end, after giving a general history of the issue, the most important criticisms made of the images and veneration of them will be briefly considered. The next step is a detailed comparison between the two groups of apologies. These apologies are mostly concentrated on demonstrating the necessity of images, their functions, and their compatibility with the spiritual core of religion. The comparison will show that the Christian apologies are analogical in their basic aspects to the pagan apologies. In other words, the apologies that some Christian theologians made for images in response to the other Christians and Jews, was in a way the reproduction of apologies that pagan philosophers made in response to early Christians. A subsidiary result of this analogy is the transformation and restriction of the meaning of idolatry. Idolatry's definition in this transition becomes more and more restricted to the object of worship and no longer heeds to the rituals and appearances.

Keywords

گاتری. دبلیو. کی. سی. (1375). تاریخ فلسفه یونان، (ج 10) سوفسطاییان (بخش نخست). ترجمه حسن فتحی. تهران: انتشارات فکر روز.
Reference
Bevan, Edwyn. (1940). Holy Images. London: Routledge.
Brubaker, Leslie & Haldon John. (2011). Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era c. 680-850: A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brubaker, Leslie. (2012). Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm. London: Bristol Classical Press.
Celsus. (1987). On the True Doctrine. Trans by R. Joseph Hoffmann. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clement of Alexandria. (1919). The Exhortation To the Greeks. Trans by G. W. Butterworth. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Dio Chrysostom. (2017). Complete Works. Trans by J. W. Cohoon. Hastings: Delphi Classics.
Eusebius of Caesarea. (1903). Preparation for the Gospel. Trans by E. H. Gifford. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Graham, Daniel W. (2010). The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
John of Damascus. (2003). Three Treatises on the Divine Images. Trans by Andrew Louth. New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press.
Maguire, Henry. (1981). Art and Eloquence in Byzantium. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mango, Cyril. (1986). The Art of Byzantine Empire 312-1453. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Maximus of Tyre. (1997). The Philosophical Orations. Trans by M. B. Trapp. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Noble, Thomas. (2009). Images, Iconoclasm and the Carolingians. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Origen. (1953). Contra Celsum. Trans by Henry Chadwick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plotinus. (2018). The Enneads. Trans by George Boys-Stones and others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Porphyry. (1986). Porphyry's Letters to His Wife Marcella. Trans by Alice Zimmern. Grand Rapids: Phanes Press.
Porphyry. (1994). Against the Christians. R. Joseph Hoffmann. New York: Prometheus Books.
Prince, Susan. (2015). Antisthenes of Athens, Texts, Translations and Commentary. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Von Hefele, Karl Joseph. (1896). A History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents. A.D. 626 to A.D.787. Trans by William Clark. New York: AMS Press.