Peter Costello
Face to Face: The Theology of the Icon,
by Aidan Hart
(Gracewing, £9.95 / €11.50)
The title is, of course, as allusion to the text of St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see as in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
We have to remember that in antiquity there were no glass mirrors as we know them. They developed in the early Renaissance – people before then used highly polished metal such as bronze. These gave indeed a very partial view of one’s appearance. People could only have a clouded idea of themselves, though they saw others face to face, as ultimately, they would encounter the divine.
This idea of coming “face to face with the divine” lies at the heart of icon theology.
We have also to remember that according to a very ancient Christian tradition St Luke was an artist and created some of the first images of the Virgin and Child. This idea is also an important element in the icon tradition.
There were those, however, in the first centuries, who took the words of the Bible literally in Exodus 20:4-6 and Deuteronomy 5:8, leading to a blanket prohibition against images. This was the view of the Iconoclasts. But the other current opinion was that the worship of the images and objects out of reverence to their own power was wrong. Catholics saw the images as aids to veneration, not as in themselves objects of worship.
Icons
With the revival of a more academic interest in Orthodox and Byzantine traditions and art in the last century by such scholars as David Talbot Rice, a better understanding of the meaning and purpose of icons has come to pervade Western Christianity.
David Hart is a research Associate of the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies and has long been involved in promoting icons as a scholar, teacher, and painter. He is a member of the Greek Orthodox community in Britain, and so brings special qualifications of scholarship and belief to the writing of this book.
Christians and others outside Orthodoxy can feel themselves safe in the hands of a well informed guide”
It is intended to provide so the author says a “concise introduction to the Orthodox Church’s theology of the icon”. Orthodoxy has, of course, its own currents of theological nuance. Though intended for the general reader it has for those with more academic interests a full reference resource.
The bibliography is remarkably rich and up to date, with books that deal less with art history than with matters of theology, practice, and philosophy. Indeed the text as whole derives from an on-line contribution which Hart wrote for the authoritative St Andrew’s Encyclopaedia of Theology.
This being so, Christians and others outside Orthodoxy can feel themselves safe in the hands of a well informed guide. Hart is sensitive to larger influences, and so avoids the ‘anti-western’ strain of writing he notes among some Orthodox adherents.
It might seem that a book on icons would of its essence be appealing back to early and medieval tradition. Yet, as he notes at the end of the book, the icon can be “a paradigm to address contemporary issues” among the ecological issues facing the world, with society’s often total disregard for the nature and purpose of Creation.
Icons or art works derived from the icon tradition are now so common in many churches and places of prayer and meditation that a book of this kind will be valuable for those who wish to go beyond a superficial encounter to a deeper understanding of just how icons aid the human encounter with the divine.
Aidan Hart, who lives and paints in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, can be reached at mail@aidanharticons.com.