TEOLOGIA ICOANEI-MĂRTURISIRE A ORTODOXIEI
ICON THEOLOGY-CONFESSION OF ORTHODOXY

Summary/Abstract: Old Testament theology made a distinction between the symbol and God, whether it was the natural symbol or the one chosen by a special, supernatural act of God. In this sense, sacred symbols are an anticipation of the icon, as the Old Testament is an anticipation of Christ. The icon preserves the distinction between the creature and God, and the representation of God in the forms of iconographic art has become possible due to the reality of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The Holy Fathers were the ones who developed a theology of the icon, finding the spiritual arguments and the necessary political actions and stating, in definitive sentences, its deep meanings. If, for the opponents of the icons, a true icon must be identical in nature with its prototype so that it is fully present in it, for its defenders there is only a relationship of resemblance and not identity of being between an icon and its prototype. The dogma of the veneration of icons ends the theological edifice of Orthodoxy, putting its seal over the era of the Ecumenical Councils, because this apotheotic doctrine recapitulates all the theological reflection of the Byzantine East.

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