This book reports the most famous dispute between the Church and the State over the presence of paintings, mosaics, and statues in churches, in the period from 717 to 843. In no other book was the Iconoclastic Controversy described in a more detailed way. An essential volume not only for those who are interested in the religious discourse, but also for those who want to approach a very peculiar historical and artistic period. This is a new edition of the Society of the Promotion of the Christian Knowledge 1930 publication.

WINNER of the Christian Retailers' Choice Awards 2010 for the "most significant new life-changing products in the Christian retail industry." Christian History Made Easy clearly lays out the most important events in the history of the church, from the time of Jesus to modern day. Christian History Made Easy explains early church history, the Church Councils, the Great Schism, the Crusades, Francis of Assisi, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformation, and more. This incredible handbook presents key church history events and great Christian leaders everyone should know, along with full-color church history timelines, photos, pictures, and maps. The study guide and worksheets in the back makes this book an excellent Bible Study, adults Sunday school topics, or homeschool curriculum. Author Timothy Paul Jones makes Christian history refreshingly fun while at the same time informing Christians about the history of the Christian faith. Key Features ENGAGING—Find out the fascinating and inspiring stories of key people, such as Martin Luther, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, John Calvin, Charles Finney, John Bunyan, and more! EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND—Enjoy getting a simple overview of all key events throughout Christian history, including how we got the Bible; creeds; the Crusades; revivals; and more! PACKED WITH VISUALS—including charts, time lines, pictures, maps, photos, and illustrations. FASCINATING FACTS—Enjoy discovering fascinating facts, such as: St. Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and sold to a sheepherder in Ireland! Each Chapter of Christian History Made Easy Includes Key events & conceptsNames, key terms, and definitions you should knowFull-color Bible maps and timelinesAt the end of each chapter is a student guide, student worksheet, learning activity and quiz

In the year 726 C.E., the Byzantine emperor Leo III issued an edict declaring images to be idols, forbidden by Exodus, and ordering all such images in churches to be destroyed. Thus commenced the first wave of Byzantine iconoclasm, which ran its violent course until 787, when the underlying issues were temporarily resolved at the Second Council of Nicaea. In 815, a second great wave of iconoclasm was set off, only to end in 842 when the icons were restored to the churches of the East and the iconoclasts excommunicated. The iconoclast controversies have long been understood as marking major fissures between the Western and Eastern churches. Thomas F. X. Noble reveals that the lines of division were not so clear. It is traditionally maintained that the Carolingians in the 790s did not understand the basic issues involved in the Byzantine dispute. Noble contends that there was, in fact, a significant Carolingian controversy about visual art and, if its ties to Byzantine iconoclasm were tenuous, they were also complex and deeply rooted in central concerns of the Carolingian court. Furthermore, he asserts that the Carolingians made distinctive and original contributions to the whole debate over religious art. Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians is the first book to provide a comprehensive study of the Western response to Byzantine iconoclasm. By comparing art-texts with laws, letters, poems, and other sources, Noble reveals the power and magnitude of the key discourses of the Carolingian world during its most dynamic and creative decades.

The first comparative, cross-cultural study of medieval illustrated histories that engages in a direct, confrontational dialogue with Byzantine historical memory.

This book focuses on iconoclastic controversies and, in particular, their impact on the creation of religious identities. In the history of Jewish, Christian and Muslim culture, religious identity was not only formed through historical claims, but also through the use of certain images: ‘images of God’, ‘images of the others’, and ‘images of the self.’ Moreover, in the struggle for religious identity these ‘images’ were time and again employed for the purpose of establishing distinct groups, both ortho- dox and deviant. At the same time, they supplied weapons in the theological debate and found explicit expression in certain rituals or liturgical traditions. These conference proceedings include a discussion of the role of images in society, politics, theology and liturgy, in particular addressing the ‘iconoclash’ of physical, mental and verbal images on the construction of religious identity.

Twelve scholars contextualize and critically examine the key debates about the controversy over icons and their veneration that would fundamentally shape Byzantium and Orthodox Christianity.

The cross stirs intense feelings among Christians as well as non-Christians. Robin Jensen takes readers on an intellectual and spiritual journey through the two-thousand-year evolution of the cross as an idea and an artifact, illuminating the controversies—along with the forms of devotion—this central symbol of Christianity inspires. Jesus’s death on the cross posed a dilemma for Saint Paul and the early Church fathers. Crucifixion was a humiliating form of execution reserved for slaves and criminals. How could their messiah and savior have been subjected to such an ignominious death? Wrestling with this paradox, they reimagined the cross as a triumphant expression of Christ’s sacrificial love and miraculous resurrection. Over time, the symbol’s transformation raised myriad doctrinal questions, particularly about the crucifix—the cross with the figure of Christ—and whether it should emphasize Jesus’s suffering or his glorification. How should Jesus’s body be depicted: alive or dead, naked or dressed? Should it be shown at all? Jensen’s wide-ranging study focuses on the cross in painting and literature, the quest for the “true cross” in Jerusalem, and the symbol’s role in conflicts from the Crusades to wars of colonial conquest. The Cross also reveals how Jews and Muslims viewed the most sacred of all Christian emblems and explains its role in public life in the West today.