, the divine archetype can also be realized only spiritually and morally in life. The religious path of the action of God upon humans is not the path of external influence upon the senses but rather that of spiritual action upon the mind and the will. Such an effect does not come about through the art of painting. Thus, opponents of icons claim that the only way to reach and understanding of the truth is by studying the writings of the Old and New Testaments, which are filled with the Spirit of God. The Iconoclastic Controversy was a dispute over the use of religious images in the 8th and 9th centuries. There were two main groups to the conflict: the Iconoclasts and the Iconodules. The iconoclasts were those who rejected images and objected to icon worship for several reasons, including the Old Testament prohibition against images in the Ten Commandments (4, Exodus 20:4) and the possibility of idolatry. Epiphanius (c. 315-402), bishop of Salamis in Greece stated, "Have God always in your hearts, but not in the community house, for it does not become a Christian to expect the elation of his soul from recourse to his eyes and the roaming about of his senses" (1, 1). The iconodules on the other hand insisted on the symbolic nature of images and on the dignity of created matter. John of Damascus wrote "For the invisible things of God since the creation of the world are made visible through images. We see images in creation which remind us of God" (2, 1). The decisive contrast between the two groups can be found in their understanding of Christology. The iconodules based their theology upon the view of Athanasius, who reflected Alexandrian Christology. They believed that Christ, the God become human, is the visible, earthly, and physical icon of the heavenly Father, created by God himself. The iconoclasts explain in terms of ancient Antiochene Christology, that the image conflicts with the ecclesiastical belief of the Person o...
