Lecture 23: The Rise of Islam and the Threat of Iconoclasm
• Despite the popularity of icons, especially among monks, there
were several factors in Byzantine Christianity that were hostile to
their use.
o Monophysitism (and its nephew monotheletism) diminished an
appreciation of the humanity of Jesus in favor of his divinity;
for those holding such a view, an artistic representation of the
“son of God” might appear to be close to pagan idolatry.o In the 7th century, a Byzantine sect called the Paulicians held
a radically dualistic view of reality and denied the Incarnation
altogether—what was important were the teachings of Christ.
Material things are evil; only Spirit is good.o A final factor was the insistence of Islam on what might be
termed a “naked monotheism”—Allah is singular and can
have no partners—and its refusal of all artistic representations
of Allah.o These perspectives combined as an immovable object
(icon veneration) and irresistible force (resistance to
idols), and Byzantine Christianity was thrown into its final
theological paroxysm.• The controversy began when the emperor Leo the Isaurian (717–
741) argued that the practice of venerating icons kept both Jews and
Muslims from converting to Christianity and, in 726, issued an edict
forbidding the use of icons as idols and ordering their destruction.
o Germanus, the patriarch of Constantinople, appealed to Rome
to settle the issue but was deposed by Leo in 730.o Monks throughout the empire supported the use of icons and
were, in turn, persecuted by the emperor.o Pope Gregory III held two synods in Rome in 731, condemning
the followers of Leo and his iconoclastic program.