The icon does not simply fulfill the desire of the gaze, but transforms it.
![a visible representation of an ivisible god a visible representation of an ivisible god](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/994aec_ebacc466d2db413f9c6467be36a22d9e~mv2_d_1200_1200_s_2.jpg)
Whereas the idol has its origin in a desire to gaze upon the invisible, the icon originates in the desire of the invisible to be known. If in Jesus, the invisible God has been made visible, how does Jesus differ from an idol? Have we not simply projected onto Jesus what we hoped to see in God? Have we not used his story to carve out concepts with which to render the invisible God, visible? It is indeed possible for Jesus to become yet another idol if we mold his story to fit our gaze.īut in Jesus we are given an opportunity to apprehend God in a completely new kind of visibility. Who is the image of the invisible God -Col 1:15 How do we enter into an intelligent relationship with God without creating idols? What distinguishes the idol from the icon? These concepts simply mirror the face of our desires. The concept that is sculpted to capture our gaze and satisfy our vision of the divine is as idolatrous as any graven image. Kindle Edition.ĭear children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5:21 God Without Being: Hors-Texte, Second Edition (Religion and Postmodernism). “When a philosophical thought expresses a concept of what it then names “God,” this concept functions exactly as an idol.” But another form of idolatry, one more subtle, has emerged – the concept. Our understanding of metaphysics has advanced too far … or so we think. We no longer project our gaze upon visible idols for we now consider it superstitious. It is not that we are no longer capable of idolatry, but rather that it has taken a particular form.
![a visible representation of an ivisible god a visible representation of an ivisible god](https://reader012.vdocuments.mx/reader012/slide/20190421/56649c6d5503460f9491f520/document-15.png)
![a visible representation of an ivisible god a visible representation of an ivisible god](https://word8life.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jesus-passion.jpg)
Modern humanity has for the most part lost their ability for such splendid idolatry. The artist crafts this idol in the hope that the same experience can be shared as other worshippers allow their gaze to be saturated by the image. The emotion and fulfillment that the artist experienced in this encounter is what inspired the artist to capture the event, to paint or to sculpt in order to preserve the fulness that satisfied the gaze. The idol is not simply a false god, but might even have had its beginning in an authentic encounter with the divine. The idol does not exist independently, it has no face of its own, but acts as a mirror, reflecting the face of the gaze, taking on the splendor and form of our desire. In the idol the invisible is finally made visible – it ends the search, it fulfills the desire, it completes the concept and renders it in perfect form. Whether this be an object, a man or a woman, a concept, or a god, wherever the gaze settles in fulfillment, an idol is created. The more intense the desire and the greater the intention, the more splendor will be seen in the idol. It is not the inherent beauty of the idol that makes it visible and worthy of adoration, but rather the fact that here the gaze stopped and transferred the beauty it longed for onto a visible form. The idol is the visible representation of the divine precisely because that is where the gaze was arrested, decided to settle, and find its fulfillment. It is not the quality of the craftsmanship that creates the idol, but the gaze. It does not see through it and as such the idol is the first truly visible. The gaze penetrates and sees right through ordinary objects but when it falls upon the idol it is stopped. This is what separates the idol from other objects. We see through it for it does not contain the substance that satisfies the searching gaze, and so becomes translucent. This intention to see the divine is not easily satisfied, for most of what is visible is not what the gaze is hoping for. The idol has its origin in a desire to gaze upon the invisible. And so a distinction had to be drawn between these two concepts.
![a visible representation of an ivisible god a visible representation of an ivisible god](https://image.slideserve.com/1267230/1-the-visible-image-of-the-invisible-god-l.jpg)
But Christians could not ignore that Jesus became a visible representation of the invisible God, yet they do not consider him an idol. For the Jews of the old testament there was no difference between an idol and an icon – any visible representation of God was blasphemous. Idols and icons are ways of seeing the divine, of making the invisible visible.