I want to try to understand something of the nature and significance of icons in Eastern Orthodoxy.

A. I begin this discussion with some key facts based on the relevant entry in the Dictionary of the Christian Church (F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingstone, eds. 3rd Edition, 1997)

1. Icons are pictures, representing the Lord, the Virgin Mary, or another saint, which have been used and venerated in the Eastern Church since around the 5th century.
2. They ‘venerated’ (not worshipped), with all the marks of such veneration common in the East – kisses, prostrations, incense, etc.

Vladimir Berzonsky, in his contribution to ‘Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism‘ sets out in a striking way a characteristic feature of Orthodox worship, and how this contrasts with (what he understands to be) the Evangelical view.

‘When the Orthodox Christians come together to experience the joy of Eucharist’, Berzonsky explains,

‘only the best will do. Church as building becomes a temple, set apart to be made holy—prelude and paradigm of the world become church.

What are the key theological differences between Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism?

1. Celebrating the Unknowable

Orthodox theology resists what it sees as the unduly rational approach of the West.  John of Damascus (655–749) wrote,

‘It is plain, then, that there is a God. But what he is in his essence and nature is absolutely incomprehensible and unknowable.… All that is comprehensible about him is his incomprehensibility.’

This reflects an ‘apophatic’ theology, which tries to describe God in terms of what he is not.  …