As with any trend, however, no matter how apparently innocent, it is valuable to reflect on the role the trend is playing in our culture and attempt to determine appropriate use. The centrality of images to our culture is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the realm of social media, where the image has come to function as a type of shorthand badge of identity and mode of argument: we cultivate profiles of our lives through visuals and share our ideologies through memes (i.e., viral, culturally recognizable digital texts-frequently imaged-based-that are creatively employed to different ends in a variety of contexts). Nevertheless, the early church’s initial discussions of iconography could not have anticipated our current image-inundated culture.įrom billboards advertising Christian speakers to television and film adaptations of the Gospels to the mass image-based marketing of Christian product lines such as Not of this World, the default position of the evangelical church today appears to favor image production and consumption over image skepticism. From analysis of scriptural texts regarding the second commandment banning graven images to the iconoclastic emphasis of John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, the use of art and image throughout church history has remained in tension with concerns over idolatry and heresy. For further information or to subscribe to the C HRISTIAN R ESEARCH J OURNAL go to: Ĭhristian theologians, apologists, and practitioners of the faith have long concerned themselves with the appropriate use and function of images and visual aids in the church. The full text of this article in PDF format can be obtained by clicking here. This article first appeared in the C HRISTIAN R ESEARCH J OURNAL, volume 39, number 02 (2016).
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