The Shepherd, May 2008
IV. Conclusions
1. AN UNDERSTANDING of the foregoing fundamental theological truths, which are codified in the so-called Byzantine type of the Resurrection, provides us with a direct response to the false dilemma:
How is Christ to be depicted in the Icon of the Resurrection? With His resurrected body or without it?34
• Since in this sacred Icon it is not simply and solely the Descent into Hades of the deified soul of the Savior that is represented (an event which cannot, in fact, be depicted), but the dogma of the abolition of death and Hades and of the Resurrection of humanity, then we reply as follows:
2 Christ is to be depicted with His resurrected body, holding the Cross, of course, and bearing the symbols of the victory won through His Passion, that is, the prints of the nails in His hands and feet, but without being encompassed by the realm of Hades and death, which (as background) is placed beneath or behind Him, in order to show that He has overcome, defeated, and abolished it.
2. BEFORE US we have the mystery of the death and Resurrection of Our Savior, of the victory over death, and of the harrowing of Hades:
“Although His holy soul was parted from His body during His three-day death and descended into Hades, while His body lay in the tomb, nevertheless, the substance of His Divinity was inseparable from both His soul and His body. Hence, present in the tomb through His body, It rent death asunder; present in Hades through His soul, it freed the souls in Hades.”35
v The Orthodox type of the Resurrection, in a most profoundly theological way, succeeds in initiating us into this “other-worldly” twofold mystery, whereas the Western type is incapable of initiating us into this mystery, bereft as it is of historical exactitude or theology.
3. IT IS NOW possible for us, through this prism, to evaluate the views of St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite,36 who put forth his opinion on this subject, but not in a dogmatic spirit. Rather, he submitted it to the judgment of the Church, since—as he himself writes—“the final arbiter in the Church” is an Œcumenical Synod, which is the “personification” of the Church.37
“What matters to us is not what some Fathers have said or thought, but what Scripture says, what the Œcumenical Synods say, and what the common mind of the Fathers says. For the opinion of certain individuals in the Church does not constitute a dogma”; “the opinion of a multitudinous and Œcumenical Synod is preferable by far to the opinion of a single individual.”38
Unto God
be glory and thanksgiving!
1 Cf. Spyros Marines, “Prologue” to the work by Leonid Ouspensky, The theology of the icon in the Orthodox Church (Athens: Ekdoseis “Harmos,” 1993), Vol. I, p. 7.
2 Leonid Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon, trans. Anthony Gythiel (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992), Vol. I, pp. 16, 14-15. (In a few places we have found it necessary to modify the English version of Ouspensky’s work in order to reflect the Greek translation used by the author of this Report—Trans.)
3 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 189.
4 Ieron Phdalion [The sacred rudder], “Prolegomena” to the Seventh Œcumenical Synod, 7th ed. (Athens: “Aster,” 1970), pp. 314-321.
5 Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon, Vol. II, p. 420.
6 The oldest example of such a Western-style Icon is that by Elias (Leo) Moskos (†1682, Zakynthos), painted in 1657 (now housed in the Byzantine Museum in Athens).
7 Constantine D. Kalokyris, The Essence of Orthodox Iconography, trans. Peter A. Chamberas (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross School of Theology, 1971), pp. 33, 35.
8 Gravure (etching): the art of engraving drawings on the surfaces of various hard and resistant materials for reproduction in mass quantities (lithography, xylography, chalcography, etc.). In the West, as far back as the Middle Ages, gravure underwent significant development, starting with images carved in wood.
9 Yuri Piatnitsky, in Icons by Cretan artists (Herakleion: Bikelaia Bibliotheke-Panepistemiakes Ekdoseis Kretes,1993), p. 357.
10 Kalokyris, The Essence of Orthodox Iconography, p. 33.
11 Piatnitsky, in EikoneV thV KrhtikhV TecnhV, p. 327.
12 Monk Ioannes-Charilaos Branos, The theory of iconography (Thessalonica: Ekdoseis “P. Pournaras,” 1977), p. 223.
13 St. John of Damascus, “Demonstrative Discourse Concerning the Holy and Precious Icons,” §3, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XCV, cols. 313D-316A.
14 Ibid., § 10, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XCV, col. 325D.
15 Triodion, “Sunday of Orthodoxy” (Athens: Ekdoseis “Phos,” 1989), p. 156a.
16 St. John of Damascus, “Demonstrative Discourse Concerning the Holy and Precious Icons,” §§3, 10, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XCV, cols. 316A, 325D.
17 Metropolitan Hierotheos of Naupaktos, The feasts of the Lord (Lebadeia, Greece: Hiera Mone Genethliou tes Theotokou [Pelagias], 1995), pp. 262, 263.
18 Kalokyris, The Essence of Orthodox Iconography, p. 36.
19 Ibid., pp. 36-37.
20 Michel Quenot, The Resurrection and the Icon (Katerine: Ekdoseis “Tertios,” 1998), p. 94.
21 Branos, Qewria AgiografiaV, pp. 216, 217.
22 Paul Evdokimov, The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty, trans. Fr. Steven Bigham (Redondo Beach, CA: Oakwood Publications, 1990), p. 325.
23 Quenot, H Anastash kai h Eikona, p. 147.
24 Branos, Qewria AgiografiaV, p. 225.
25 Protopresbyter Georges Florovsky, “'O StaurikoV QanatoV” [Of the death on the Cross], in 'Anatomia Problhmatwn thV PistewV [An analysis of matters of faith], trans. Archimandrite Meletios Kalamaras (Thessalonica: Ekdoseis Bas. Regopoulou, 1977), pp. 79, 80, 81.
26 Nikos A. Matsoukas, Δogmatikh kai Sumbolikh Qeologia [Dogmatic and symbolic theology] (Thessalonica: Ekdoseis “P. Pournaras,” 1985), Vol. II, p. 552.
27 Metropolitan Hierotheos, Oi DespotikeV 'EorteV, p. 265.
28 Ibid.
29 Paraklhtikh, Plagal of the First Tone, Sunday Orthros, First Sticheron at the Praises (Athens: Ekdoseis “Phos,” 1987), p. 246b.
30 Evdokimov, The Art of the Icon, p. 319.
31 St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, 'Eortodromion [Commentary on the Great Feasts] (Venice: 1836), p. 32 (see also pp. 427 and 430): “Jonah stretched forth his hands in the form of a Cross within the belly of the sea monster, plainly prefiguring the redeeming Passion. Cast out thence after three days, he foreshadowed the supramundane Resurrection of Christ our God, Who was crucified in the flesh and enlightened the world by His Rising on the third day” (Canon of the Exaltation of the Cross, Ode 6, Heirmos).
32 Leonid Ouspensky, in Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, trans. G.E.H. Palmer and E. Kadloubovsky (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982), pp. 187, 185.
33 Kalokyris, The Essence of Orthodox Iconography, p. 34. See also Ouspensky, The Meaning of Icons, pp. 189-192, regarding this Icon of the Resurrection as having already taken place, in accordance with the Gospel narratives.
34 Branos, Qewria 'AgiografiaV, pp. 222.
35 St. Nikodemos, 'Eortodromion, p. 397 (see also p. 388):
• “Thou wast slain, but not separated, O Word, from the flesh that Thou didst share with us; for though Thy temple was destroyed at the time of Thy Passion, yet the Hypostasis of Thy Divinity and of Thy flesh but one; in both Thou art one Son, the Word of God, both God and man” (Canon of Great Saturday, Ode 6, Troparion 1).
36 Phdalion, p. 321 (footnote).
37 Ibid., p. 120 (footnote).
38 Ibid., p. 7, n. 2, p. 320 (footnote).
N.B. Our computer was constructed, and is used, by barbarians, and so we have been unable to reproduce the accents in the Greek words above accurately. We have done the best we could and on occasion, when a translation was in any case included, have omitted the Greek. Those who wish to check the original may do so by referring to the website of the Synod in Resistance:
http://www.synodinresistance.org/index-en.html
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