Icons

One possible defense of the iconodule position is to draw an analogy between the use of icons in worship and the use of words in worship. The argument would be basically:

1. Venerating the word “YHWH” is superstitious.
2. But we do worship “through” the word “YHWH.”
3. Similarly, venerating an image is idolatrous, but worshiping “through” an image is not.

Obviously, this turns on the assumption that there is an analogy between a name and an image. I don’t find that persuasive at all. Our use of words is phenomenologically different from the use of icons, and that seems to be suggested by the very language we use to talk about the two.

One indication of this, I think, is the very awkwardness of using “through” to describe what we do with words and names. I don’t talk with anyone “through” words or address you “through” words. The relationship of word to address seems much more a “with” kind of relationship. That’s a relatively small point, but the awkwardness of talking about speaking “through” language points to a difference between speech and veneration of (or “through”) icons.

Second, and more fundamentally, words are not images, and names are not images. We address God by His name, but iconodules don’t talk about addressing God with an image. An image is not an appropriate means of address. Using icons to address God would be like putting a picture at the head of a letter instead of “Dear Sir.” Pasting a picture on a page is not the same act as putting a name at the head of a letter.

This last point is crucial, I think, for worship. Worship is, in one biblical description, a matter of “calling on the name of the Lord,” and praise is always addressed to God. And in worship, God addresses us. We don’t address God “through” His name, but address God “by name” or “with His name.” Inserting icons into this mutual address simply changes the action that’s being done. Venerating an icon is not the same as addressing God; and an icon looking at you is not the same as God addressing you.