Dr. John Bergsma

So when did icons became an issue?

Icons didn't become an issue until the rise of Islam.

And it wasn't in the Latin West with the Pope, it was in the East.

So if people think that the Pope imposed icons, that's not the case at all.

How this all blew up into a huge controversy is some of the Eastern emperors, probably prompted by the aniconic tradition in Islam, which was becoming, and Islam was becoming very influential,

also adopted an anti-icon or iconoclastic position and started to impose that on the faithful of the East.

And the Christian laity were completely taken aback because going back to the first generations of Christians, we did not have a problem with portraying the saints in art or portraying Jesus in art and so on.

And

And just like you would have a treasured picture of your mother, think of somebody who's maybe whose wife is deceased, and so he has a picture of his wife on his desk, and periodically picks up the picture of his beloved late wife and kisses the picture.

Um, now what if you came in and, uh, and grabbed that picture off his desk and threw it on the floor and started jumping up and down and like, and bashing and.

No, you're not praying to.

You're asking for the prayers of the saint who is portrayed.

Yeah, yeah.

But you're not praying to the icon.

The icon doesn't have power.

We've got an icon over here.

If I pray in front of that icon, I'm asking the Blessed Mother for her prayers and Jesus as well.

They're both portrayed there.

Well, I understand that.

And that gets into the question below about these different kinds of veneration.