Holberg seminar Danish Institute at AthensEternity in the theology of icon

Dr Vladimir Cvetkovic, University of Aarhus

The theology of icon A set of dogmatic presuppositions of Christian iconography that regards icons as the images of holy people of God, who are represented in the Kingdom of God as transformed by the divine grace.

Christs crucifixion in the historical perspective Jesus the Nazarean, King of the Jews Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum

Christs crucifixion in eschatological perspective

The Jesus the Nazarean, King of Glory B (Slavonic)

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ was risen (1 Cor 15:13).

Pentecost

Not a single historical event,

The permanent revelation of the Church as an eschatological sanctified community of the Apostles

Time and eternity in Christian theologyThe Person of Jesus Christ = the ultimate reference for the Church.

the Christian understanding of time and eternity is shaped by both the commemoration of the historical events and persons and expectation of realization of glorious kingdom.

Time is brought to completion at each of its moments

The eternal Kingdom is placed, not only after the end of history, but also after each particular moment of time within history.

The four categories of temporal and eternal reality

physical time - ,

eschatological time - ,

timeless category of age - and

divine eternity - .

The physical time XSt Maxim the Confessor:

everything that is after God and has come into being from God, [that] is the nature of beings and time and

everything is certainly in time, since everything that possesses existence after God possesses this existence in a certain way and not simply distinguishes being on beginning, middle and end, by introducing as certain temporal distance ()

has measured movement, which is circumscribed by number.

The physical time XSt Augustine of Hippo

We cannot say that time exist except in the sense that it tends toward non-existence

St Gregory of Nyssa

Two criteria of the good: 1) measure () and 2) opportune moment () for action.

A measure is connected to the , while the good or opportune moment () for good is determined by time as season ().

= vertical, discontinuous and repetitious time = horizontal, continuous and extensive time.

St Maximus the Confessor:

All these things, things present and things to come, have not been brought into being contemporary with their being known by God; rather each was created in an appropriate way according to its logos at the proper time ( ) according to the wisdom of the maker, and each acquired concrete actual existence in itself.

logoi or reasons of time ( ) abide in God

St Maximus the Confessor

For time () is , when movement is stilled, and is time, when it is measured by movement, since, by definition, is time deprived of movement, and time is measured by movement.

Begging, middle, and end are characteristics of being distinguished by time () and it can be truly stated that they are also characteristics of beings comprehended in . Indeed time (), which has measured movement, is circumscribed by number, and , which includes in its existence the category of when, admits separation insofar as it began to be. And if time and are not without beginning, so much less are those things which are contained in them.

tn anwn adithti

Jesus is the universal successor of time and (Maximus the Confessor)

Time and Eternity in the Eucharistic LiturgyLiturgies ofSt Basil the Great (celebrated only 10 times a year), St John Chrystostom

Liturgy of catechumens 1st partThe first entrance of the bishop in the holy Church for the sacred synaxis is a figure and image of the first appearance in the flesh of Jesus Christ the Son of God and our Saviour in this world.(Mystagogy)

It is time () for the Lord to act ( ).

Liturgy of faithful 2nd partAfter the divine reading of the Gospel the bishop descends from his throne It signifies and figures by itself the truth, of it is an image and figure, as if proclaiming thereby that after having preached, as is written, the Gospel of the kingdom in the whole world as a witness to all the Gentiles, the end will appear in the second coming of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ from the Heavens in glory (Mystagogy)

The Cherubic hymn symbolically incorporates those present at the liturgy into the presence of the angels gathered around God's throne.

Remembering all those things which came to pass for us: the cross, the grave, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting down at the right hand, the second and glorious coming

The Eucharist

By Holy Communion of the spotless and life-giving mysteries we are given fellowship and identity with him [Christ] by participation in likeness, by which man is deemed worthy from man to become God.(Myst. 24, 2)

Time and eternity in the theology of icons

Byzantine iconography like Byzantine liturgy always represents the eschatological events, even when it depicts events from the past.

in the iconography

The summation of time

the summation in time is to convey the movement of the depicted figure by combining different stages in the figures motion

A complex translationA repetition with the limits of single representation of a certain figure in various positions or situations

A complex translation

The summation in space deformation of the object of summation.

The summation of space representation of separate moments in the single scene

and in the iconographyDionysius the Areopagate (CE):

Every good endowment and every perfect gift from above, coming down from the Father of light. But there is something more. Inspired by the Father each procession of the Light spread itself generously toward us, and, in its power to unify, it stirs by lifting us up. It returns us back to the oneness and deifying simplicity of the Father who gathers us in. For, as the sacred Word says, from him and to him are all things.

Let us, then, call upon Jesus, the Light of the Father, the true light enlightening every man coming into the world, through whom we have obtained access to the Father, the light which is source of all light.

Angelic realmThe name cherubim signifies the power to know and to see God, to receive the greatest gifts of his light, to contemplate the divine splendour in primordial power, to be filled with the gifts that bring wisdom and to share these generously with the subordinates as a part of the beneficent outpouring of wisdom.

The theology of lightface shone like the sun, and the garments become white as light (Mt 17,2)God is called Light not according to His Essence, but according to His energy. (St. Gregory Palamas)

The testimony of the divine light St Symeon the New TheologianOne day he was standing in this fashion and was saying out loud: "O God be merciful to me a sinner" (more in the spirit than using his mouth), when suddenly there shone on him in great profusion a divine illumination from on high which entirely filled that place. Thereupon the young man was no longer aware of himself. He could not remember whether he was in a house or even under a roof at all. For all around he could only see the light. Even if his feet were on the ground he was not aware of it; he had no fear of falling, no care in this world. Nothing of what touches a man, or beings endowed with a body, could then touch his thought for he forgot the entire world and was altogether present in that immaterial light, and was even himself, or so it seemed to him, become light. (Discourse 22)

The characteristics of the divine light the great profusion of a divine illumination is from on high. entirely filled the space. illuminates the saints centrally. rays create a centripetal lightening on each figure.

The characteristics of the divine lighthe could not remember whether he was in a house or even under a roof at all. For all around he could only see the light

The characteristics of the divine lightIt [light] expelled from me all material denseness and bodily heaviness that made my members [bodily parts] to be sluggish and numb

ConclusionThe icon does not transmit our ideas about Christ and the saints, but it helps us to establish a relationship with their very true and eternal identity as is it perceived by God in the uncrated light of His presence.