Idolatry Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Orthodox Church==== The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] has differentiated between ''[[latria]]'' and ''[[Dulia (Latin)|dulia]]''. A ''latria'' is the [[latria|worship]] due God, and ''latria'' to anyone or anything other than God is doctrinally forbidden by the Orthodox Church; however ''dulia'' has been defined as veneration of religious images, statues or icons which is not only allowed but obligatory.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kathleen M. Ashley|author2=Robert L. A. Clark|title=Medieval Conduct|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6M_9muo654C&pg=PA211 |year=2001|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-3576-4|pages=211β212}}</ref> This distinction was discussed by [[Thomas Aquinas]] in section 3.25 of ''Summa Theologiae''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bernard Lonergan|title=The Incarnate Word: The Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, Volume 8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnqMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA310 |year=2016|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4426-3111-3|pages=310β314}}</ref> [[File:Ostrabrama-prayer.jpg|thumb|The veneration of images of Mary is called [[Marian devotions|Marian devotion]] (above: Lithuania), a practice questioned in the majority of Protestant Christianity.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rev. Robert William Dibdin|title=England warned and counselled; 4 lectures on popery and tractarianism|url=https://archive.org/details/englandwarnedan00dibdgoog|year=1851|publisher=James Nisbet|page=[https://archive.org/details/englandwarnedan00dibdgoog/page/n38 20]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Gary Waller|title=Walsingham and the English Imagination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzHL_q84028C&pg=PA153|year=2013|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=978-1-4094-7860-7|page=153}}</ref>]] In Orthodox [[apologetics|apologetic]] literature, the proper and improper use of images is extensively discussed. Exegetical Orthodox literature points to icons and the manufacture by Moses (under God's commandment) of [[Nehushtan|the Bronze Snake]] in Numbers 21:9, which had the grace and power of God to heal those bitten by real snakes. Similarly, the [[Ark of the Covenant]] was cited as evidence of the ritual object above which Yahweh was present.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sebastian Dabovich|title=The Holy Orthodox Church: Or, The Ritual, Services and Sacraments of the Eastern Apostolic (Greek-Russian) Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jJDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA21|year=1898|publisher=American Review of Eastern Orthodoxy|pages=21β22|isbn=9780899810300}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Ulrich Broich|author2=Theo Stemmler|author3=Gerd Stratmann|title=Functions of Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YNs9AAAAIAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Niemeyer|isbn=978-3-484-40106-8|pages=120β121}}</ref> Veneration of icons through ''[[proskynesis]]'' was codified in 787 AD by the [[Seventh Ecumenical Council]].<ref name=giakalis1>{{cite book|author=Ambrosios Giakalis|title=Images of the Divine: The Theology of Icons at the Seventh Ecumenical Council|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x6bYAAAAMAAJ |year=2005|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-14328-9|pages=viiiβix, 1β3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Gabriel Balima|title=Satanic Christianity and the Creation of the Seventh Day |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pNfqjbX2GQgC&pg=PA72 |year=2008|publisher=Dorrance|isbn=978-1-4349-9280-2|pages=72β73}}</ref> This was triggered by the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy that followed raging Christian-Muslim wars and a period of iconoclasm in West Asia.<ref name=giakalis1/><ref>Patricia Crone (1980), Islam, Judeo-Christianity and Byzantine Iconoclasm, ''Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam'', Volume 2, pages 59β95</ref> The defense of images and the role of the Syrian scholar John of Damascus was pivotal during this period. The Eastern Orthodox Church has ever since celebrated the use of icons and images. [[Eastern Rite Catholic Churches|Eastern Rite Catholics]] also accepts icons in their [[Divine Liturgy]].<ref>{{cite book|author=James Leslie Houlden|title=Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17kzgBusXZIC&pg=PA369|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-856-3|pages=369β370}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page