John of Damascus

John Damascene was also among the first to distinguish, in the cult, both public and private, of the Christians, between worship (latreia), and veneration (proskynesis): the first can only be offered to God, spiritual above all else, the second, on the other hand, can make use of an image to address the one whom the image represents.

Obviously the Saint can in no way be identified with the material of which the icon is composed. This distinction was immediately seen to be very important in finding an answer in Christian terms to those who considered universal and eternal the strict Old Testament prohibition against the use of cult images. 

This was also a matter of great debate in the Islamic world, which accepts the Jewish tradition of the total exclusion of cult images. 

Christians, on the other hand, in this context, have discussed the problem and found a justification for the veneration of images. 

John Damascene writes, 

“In other ages God had not been represented in images, being incorporate and faceless. 

But since God has now been seen in the flesh, and lived among men, I represent that part of God which is visible. 

I do not venerate matter, but the Creator of matter, who became matter for my sake and deigned to live in matter and bring about my salvation through matter. 

I will not cease therefore to venerate that matter through which my salvation was achieved. 

But I do not venerate it in absolute terms as God! How could that which, from non-existence, has been given existence, be God?

… But I also venerate and respect all the rest of matter which has brought me salvation, since it is full of energy and Holy graces. Is not the wood of the Cross, three times blessed, matter?

… And the ink, and the most Holy Book of the Gospels, are they not matter? The redeeming altar which dispenses the Bread of life, is it not matter?

… And, before all else, are not the flesh and blood of Our Lord matter? 

Either we must suppress the sacred nature of all these things, or we must concede to the tradition of the Church the veneration of the images of God and that of the friends of God who are sanctified by the name they bear, and for this reason are possessed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. 

Do not, therefore, offend matter: it is not contemptible, because nothing that God has made is contemptible” 

(cf. Contra imaginum calumniatores, I, 16, ed. Kotter, pp. 89-90).