Topic summary
Iconodule
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Iconodulism.
History
The iconoclastic controversy emerged in the Byzantine Empire and lasted through the 8th and the 9th centuries. The most famous iconodules (proponents of the veneration of icons) during that time were saints John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite. The controversy was instigated by the Byzantine Emperor Leo III in 726, when he ordered the removal of the image of Christ above the Chalke Gate of the imperial palace in Constantinople. A wider prohibition of icons followed in 730. St. John of Damascus argued successfully that to prohibit the use of icons was tantamount to denying the incarnation, the presence of the Word of God in the material world. Icons reminded the church of the physicality of God as manifested in Jesus Christ.