The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1064 page)

 
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(Gk., ‘image-breaking’). A movement which agitated the Church in the E. Roman Empire,
c.
725–843. The veneration of
icons
had attracted an undercurrent of opposition for centuries (as early as
Epiphanius
), but in the wake of a renewed Arab threat to Asia Minor it was widely blamed, especially in the army, for the weakness of the Christian empire. The opposition to icons was taken up by the emperors Leo III (717–41) and Constantine V (741–75). A fierce persecution, especially of monks, ensued. Under the empress Irene (from 780), however, the position was reversed: at the seventh
ecumenical council
at Nicaea in 787 the veneration of icons was officially reintroduced and the degree of veneration to be paid to them was defined.
After a politically unsettled period the new emperor Leo V (813–20) reasoned that iconoclasm ought to be reinstated, but persecution was in general less severe in this second phase of the controversy. An iconophile patriarch, Methodios, was elected in 843, and a great feast (since kept as the Feast of Orthodoxy) was celebrated on the first Sunday of Lent to mark the victory of the icons.
Iconoclasm then becomes a general word for opposition to, and destruction of, visible representations of the divine, and, more colloquially, for the destruction of that which is traditionally revered.

 
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(Gk.,
eikon
, ‘image’, +
graphe
, ‘writing’). The study of the representation of otherwise unseen realities through coded means: such realities may include anything from God or gods to ideas; and the means may include statues, pictures, buildings, charms, or indeed anything which can hold the ‘charge’ of such representation. Since religions have differing attitudes to the representation of the holy or the divine, each religion has a different iconographical style and content. See further
ART
.
Judaism
Jewish iconography is dominated by the prohibition on idols. While recurrent symbols occur in
Torah
and
synagogue
decoration, they are mainly to be found in manuscripts.
Christianity
The earliest Christian art was influenced by late Hellenistic realism, while in theme it was largely symbolic:
Christ
represented by a fish (see ICHTHUS), or a young shepherd, etc. From the 4th cent., Christian art was influenced by Neoplatonic aesthetics which saw art as disclosing a higher, spiritual realm, and the highly conscious symbolism characteristic of
icons
developed. Already one can detect a difference of emphasis between East and West, the E. stressing the liturgical function of the icon, while the W. saw images as pictorial illustrations of biblical events and religious doctrines. This came to a head in the 8th and 9th cents. with the
Iconoclastic
Controversy. In the W., partly under the influence of a growing devotion to Christ's sacred humanity, a more realistic, less symbolic style of painting developed from the 12th cent., about the same time as the symbolic use of form and colour reached its apogee in the stained glass of, e.g., Chartres Cathedral. The development of art in the W. has broken any
tradition
of Christian iconography: W. religious artists combine an arbitrary dependence on current artistic techniques with personally adopted symbolic schemes. As with other religions, Christianity also developed elaborate codes associated with events (e.g.
baptism
,
crucifixion
,
resurrection
, etc.) and people, esp.
saints
.
Islam
See
CALLIGRAPHY
.
Hinduism
Of all religions, Hinduism is the richest and most complex in its iconographical materials. Its strong sense of
Brahman
, not simply underlying and guaranteeing all appearance, but actually pervading, and able to become focally manifest, in all appearance, means that any object can be charged with the divine. To make an image, therefore, is to bring the divine into that image—equally, the image may become ‘dead’ when the particular concentration of the divine is withdrawn from it at the end of the act of
p
j
(worship). Iconography is therefore a matter of interaction and of the means to its achievement. The most important
locus
of the interaction is the
m
rti
(lit., ‘embodiment’, hence ‘image’).
Buddhism
Early Buddhist icons are by no means as prolific as those of Hindus: the Buddha had pointed away from relying on outside help (e.g. gods). Nevertheless, the centrality of the Buddha in leaving guidance evoked icons of recognition (e.g. images of the Buddha in the attainment of enlightenment).
St
pas
are iconographic representations of Buddhist truth in this way. However, in Mah
y
na Buddhism, the strong sense of the buddha-nature being present in all things (indeed, being all that there is of all things) led to developments comparable to those in Hinduism. In Mah
y
na, one is surrounded by a vast host of buddhas and
bodhisattvas
, who are, so to speak, ‘here’ in order to assist those who reverence them. Each of these has an elaborate set of images and symbols, which reach a supreme height in Tibet.
Sikhism
Although Sikh
gurdw
r
s
are much plainer than most Hindu
mandirs
, pictures of Gur