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Some Christian theologians see the absolutization of an idea as idolatrous. [19] Therefore, undue focus on particular features of Christianity to the exclusion of others would constitute idolatry. The New Testament does contain the rudiments of an argument which provides a basis for religious images or icons.
Icons are most commonly painted on wood panels with egg tempera, but they may also be cast in metal or carved in stone or embroidered on cloth or done in mosaic or fresco work or printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity may be classified as "icons", although "iconic" may also be used to describe the static ...
The tomb paintings of the early Christians led to the development of icons. An icon is an image, picture, or representation; it is likeness that has symbolic meaning for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics. The use of icons, however, was never without opposition.
The Christian cross has traditionally been a symbol representing Christianity or Christendom as a whole, [2] and is the best-known symbol of Christianity. [2] The Christian cross was in use from the time of early Christianity , but it remained less prominent than competing symbols ( Ichthys , Staurogram , Alpha and Omega , Christogram , Labarum ...
In the history of Christianity, iconolatry was mainly manifested in popular worship, as freedom of worship while others viewed it as superstitious belief in the divine nature of icons or deities. It was practiced as a focal point on icons, and other deities representing various saints , angels and the God .
Orthodox Christians do not pray "to" icons; rather, they pray "before" them. An icon is a medium of communication, rather than a medium of art. Gazing at, an icon is intended to help draw the worshipper into the heavenly kingdom. As with all of Orthodox theology, the purpose is theosis (mystical union with God). [citation needed]
An alternative explanation of the intersecting celestial symbol has been advanced by George Latura, claiming that Plato's "visible god" in Timaeus is the intersection of the Milky Way and the Zodiacal Light, a rare apparition important to pagan beliefs. He said that Christian bishops reframed this as a Christian symbol. [6]
However, as Christianity increasingly spread among gentiles with traditions of religious images, and especially after the conversion of Constantine (c. 312), the legalization of Christianity, and, later that century, the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, many new people came into the new large public ...