At the heart of all iconography is Jesus Christ, and thus God the Father. The Saint portrayed in an icon is in the image of Jesus Christ. In venerating the Saints, Orthodox Christians are venerating Jesus Christ ("if they receive you they will receive me" Matt. 10:40); that is, God, in Who’s image and likeness they were made. Icons serve to challenge and motivate, to encourage and bless because in them one can see and experience Jesus Christ, the hope of glory. Because of the lives they lived, Saints become models, images, or icons of what humble, loving and spiritual Christian life should be.

This understanding of the Saints as models or images of the Christian life and thus of Christ, can help provide an understanding of the Orthodox use of icons. The icons are images, or models by which believers can visualize these persons who are loved, honored, and remembered. Human beings are strongly influenced by the senses. The Ecumenical Councils were held to determine once and for all the nature of Jesus Christ. Because He is not only fully God but also fully man, He can be portrayed in icons. Iconography and the Incarnation go hand-in-hand and the taking on of human flesh and possession of both human and divine natures, is the ultimate affirmation of the inherent goodness of creation. To deny the physical side of being human, or to affirm the spiritual at the expense of the physical, is simply not Christian. In historic Christian worship all senses are involved, through the smell of incense, the sight of candles and icons, the hearing of prayers and music, and the taste of the Eucharist.

Ernst Benz, a Protestant Theologian contended in his book “The Eastern Orthodox Church: It’s Thought and Life” (p. 19) that the Eastern Christianity cannot be fully understood until and unless one understands its icons. This begins by seeing the relationship between God and mankind, for human beings were created in the image of God and carry the "icon" of God within themselves. Benz said "this image-concept also dominates the Christology and doctrine of the Trinity in the Eastern Church." Christ, the divine Word, is the image of the Father. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ, Who is the Icon of the Father, consists in renewing the image of God which was distorted by sin. Redemption is linked to this concept of image; the redemption of mankind "consists in mankind's being renewed in the image of Jesus Christ, incorporated into the new image of Christ, and thus through Jesus Christ experiencing the renewal of his status as image of God."

In the first millennium of the Church when the majority of the people were illiterate, the icons were "the books of the people." They provided images, with the associated facts and history, of those who had gone before in the faith. In many old world Orthodox countries, especially in Slavic countries, ancient churches can be found with icons painted on the outside of the building for the purpose of edifying and instructing the faithful.

Icons, by definition, are very stylized and are not naturalistic. They are not supposed to represent the scene or person as if in a portrait or photograph. They are for spiritual and prayerful purposes, and the veneration given them is referred to the person represented, and thus ultimately to Christ, and not to the image. They are written so that a theological truth is conveyed to the observer, and that theological truth portrayed in the image provides a model for our thoughts, our lives, our words and our deeds.

See Subject Pages on: Icon and Icon Painting

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