The Hesychast and the Ten Commandments - Second Commandment
17/06/2007 Filed in: Church
Fathers & Mystics
This post
is the second in a series examining St Gregory Palamas’
New Testament Decalogue. The first of the series can be
read
here.
2. “You shall not make an image of anything in the heavens above, or in the earth below, or in the sea” to which St Gregory Palamas adds: in such a way that you worship these things and glorify them as gods. In the KJV, Exodus 20:4-5 gives “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them”. I mentioned the iconoclast movement which took this commandment without its qualifier. This raises important questions about the status of icons which are particularly cherished in Eastern Christianity. St Gregory Palamas writes: you should make icons of the saints and venerate them, not as gods—for this is forbidden—but because of the attachment, inner affection and sense of surpassing honour that you feel for the saints when by means of their icons the intellect is raised up to them. The icon is therefore only a vehicle for the mind. There is no interest at all for the artist who is only a messenger, and no devotion for the object itself—the “wood and paint”. Compare this to the common approach to art nowadays. It boils down to the difference between Beauty and aesthetics. Beauty is an object of Contemplation, which generates the Desire to reconcile with one’s Creator, to migrate towards holiness. The Icon focuses one’s attention on the subject of the icon, prevents the mind from wandering, and mediates the Presence of God. Thus, icons are blessed by a monk or a priest. St Gregory Palamas used a powerful parallel: It was in this spirit that Moses made icons of the Cherubim within the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies itself was in image of things supracelestial, while the Holy Place was an image of the entire world. Moses called these things holy, not glorifying what is created, but through it glorifying God the Creator of the world.
Another symbol of God’s Presence is the cross: “You should venerate not only the icon of Christ, but also the similitude of His cross.” So, not the actual cross for itself, but through it, the crucifixion, which is the “victory over the devil and all his hostile hosts; for this reason they tremble and flee when they see the figuration of the cross”. This is extremely important, and sets Christianity—and to a lesser extent Islam (through its use of calligraphy and geometry) and Judaism—apart from any other religion: it uses intellectual symbols as weapons against the intellectually corrupt (“the devil and his hosts"). It is the meaning that the cross conveys and the belief in that meaning that acts against God’s enemies. The object itself, be it an icon or a cross, or even a relic, has no power in itself, unlike what magical practices attribute to talismans and symbols. Judaeo-Christian thought sees sacred objects as vehicles of the intellect and of faith. What this means is that a cross, or the sign of the cross, an icon, or a relic has no use at all if its bearer doesn’t use it as a catalyser of his own faith in God. Failing this understanding, their use would be idolatry.
One ought to consider that exactly the same stance should be taken regarding the sacred texts, which positively are “graven images of things in the heaven above”. On one hand, they are desecrated if they are not used as vehicles for the intellect’s migration towards God. On the other hand, they become idols if they are worshipped and glorified. Obviously, no one would admit to being an idolater. So how does one know when a text is being used as an idol? When the text is worshipped and served at the expense of the intellect, when a text isn’t read with the view that one may have a partial or plain wrong understanding of it, is it an idol. Narrow biblical literalism is one such manifestation of idolatry. Following, any world-view that is derived from fundamentalism is therefore idolatry too: a view of the world that doesn’t allow reason and intelligence—including the scientific method—to challenge it.
2. “You shall not make an image of anything in the heavens above, or in the earth below, or in the sea” to which St Gregory Palamas adds: in such a way that you worship these things and glorify them as gods. In the KJV, Exodus 20:4-5 gives “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them”. I mentioned the iconoclast movement which took this commandment without its qualifier. This raises important questions about the status of icons which are particularly cherished in Eastern Christianity. St Gregory Palamas writes: you should make icons of the saints and venerate them, not as gods—for this is forbidden—but because of the attachment, inner affection and sense of surpassing honour that you feel for the saints when by means of their icons the intellect is raised up to them. The icon is therefore only a vehicle for the mind. There is no interest at all for the artist who is only a messenger, and no devotion for the object itself—the “wood and paint”. Compare this to the common approach to art nowadays. It boils down to the difference between Beauty and aesthetics. Beauty is an object of Contemplation, which generates the Desire to reconcile with one’s Creator, to migrate towards holiness. The Icon focuses one’s attention on the subject of the icon, prevents the mind from wandering, and mediates the Presence of God. Thus, icons are blessed by a monk or a priest. St Gregory Palamas used a powerful parallel: It was in this spirit that Moses made icons of the Cherubim within the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies itself was in image of things supracelestial, while the Holy Place was an image of the entire world. Moses called these things holy, not glorifying what is created, but through it glorifying God the Creator of the world.
Another symbol of God’s Presence is the cross: “You should venerate not only the icon of Christ, but also the similitude of His cross.” So, not the actual cross for itself, but through it, the crucifixion, which is the “victory over the devil and all his hostile hosts; for this reason they tremble and flee when they see the figuration of the cross”. This is extremely important, and sets Christianity—and to a lesser extent Islam (through its use of calligraphy and geometry) and Judaism—apart from any other religion: it uses intellectual symbols as weapons against the intellectually corrupt (“the devil and his hosts"). It is the meaning that the cross conveys and the belief in that meaning that acts against God’s enemies. The object itself, be it an icon or a cross, or even a relic, has no power in itself, unlike what magical practices attribute to talismans and symbols. Judaeo-Christian thought sees sacred objects as vehicles of the intellect and of faith. What this means is that a cross, or the sign of the cross, an icon, or a relic has no use at all if its bearer doesn’t use it as a catalyser of his own faith in God. Failing this understanding, their use would be idolatry.
One ought to consider that exactly the same stance should be taken regarding the sacred texts, which positively are “graven images of things in the heaven above”. On one hand, they are desecrated if they are not used as vehicles for the intellect’s migration towards God. On the other hand, they become idols if they are worshipped and glorified. Obviously, no one would admit to being an idolater. So how does one know when a text is being used as an idol? When the text is worshipped and served at the expense of the intellect, when a text isn’t read with the view that one may have a partial or plain wrong understanding of it, is it an idol. Narrow biblical literalism is one such manifestation of idolatry. Following, any world-view that is derived from fundamentalism is therefore idolatry too: a view of the world that doesn’t allow reason and intelligence—including the scientific method—to challenge it.