Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm is the rejection or destruction of religious images, especially in disputes over their use in Christian worship. It has also shaped political struggles over public monuments and symbols.

Byzantine Iconoclasm: A series of Byzantine conflicts over religious images, especially the imperial campaigns of the eighth and ninth centuries. These disputes became the defining Christian case of iconoclasm.
Icon: A sacred image, especially one used in Eastern Christian devotion and liturgy. Icons were the principal objects at stake in Byzantine disputes.
Beeldenstorm: The wave of Calvinist destruction of Catholic images and furnishings in the Low Countries in 1566. It became a dramatic instance of Reformation-era iconoclasm.
Iconodule: A person who supports the use and veneration of religious images, especially in Eastern Christianity. Iconodules defended the practices iconoclasts sought to restrict.
Second Council of Nicaea: The 787 church council that affirmed the veneration of icons while distinguishing it from worship. Its ruling ended the first major Byzantine iconoclast period.
Veneration: A form of reverence or honor directed toward a person or sacred object, distinct from worship in Christian theology. Defenders said honor shown to an icon passes to its depicted subject.
English Reformation: The sixteenth-century process by which the Church of England separated from papal authority and underwent religious change. Royal policy and Protestant reform led to repeated removal of religious images.
Iconophilia: A positive attachment to or defense of religious images and their devotional use. It names the opposing orientation to rejection of sacred images.
John of Damascus: A Christian theologian who defended the veneration of images during Byzantine iconoclasm. His arguments grounded images in the Christian belief that God became visible in Christ.
Idolatry: The worship of an image, object, or created thing as a deity. Iconoclasts often charged that venerating images crossed into idolatry.

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