Answer:
“Iconoclasm” refers to the destruction of images or hostility toward visual representations in general. More specifically, the word is used for the Iconoclastic Controversy that shook the Byzantine Empire for more than 100 years. Open hostility toward religious representations began in 726 when Emperor Leo III publicly took a position against icons; this resulted in their removal from churches and their destruction.
<u>Arguments for the use of icons</u>:
- It was clear that this prohibition was not absolute since God also instructs how to make three dimensional representations of the Cherubim for the Ark of the Covenant, which is also quoted in the Old Testament, just a couple of chapters after the passage that prohibits images.
- Images of Christ do not depict natures, being either Divine or human, but a concrete person—Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.
- The Seventh Ecumenical Council of bishops met in Nicaea. This council affirmed the view of the iconophiles, ordering all right-believing Christians to respect holy icons, prohibiting at the same time their adoration as idolatry.
<u>Arguments against the use of icons</u>:
- Attempt to restrain the growing wealth and power of the monasteries.
- Prohibition was primarily religious.
- Some historians believe that by prohibiting icons, the Emperor sought to integrate Muslim and Jewish populations.
- Iconoclast arguments were simply confused.
