Studies of early Christian art have usually been written from the viewpoint of the Church historian, the art historian or the art critic. Few attempts
San Vitale
The church of San Vitale (526-548) has been described as «beautiful like an oriental dream», and it is here that all the splendor and brilliance
Romanos the Melodist
There are two periods in the history of Greek literature when the Greek genius has produced original and spontaneous poetic forms, and in both cases
The Icon: Sacrament of the Kingdom
To introduce my subject, I would like to paraphrase these words from the prologue of the First Epistle of St John: What we have heard,
The Symbolism of the Church
What exactly is the meaning of symbolism? The indirect expression by means of an image of something which no form, visual or verbal, can convey
Iconographic Decoration in the Orthodox Church
One of the most distinctive features of Eastern Orthodoxy is the extensive and systematic use of holy icons in churches. Every Orthodox church has an iconostasis, a
The Art of the First Centuries of Christianity and its Symbolism
We have seen that the scholarly theories concerning sacred objects have been based on diverse and changing hypotheses, sometimes even on prejudices. Thus Protestant scholars,
Byzantine Iconography
The term «iconography», as it was used in the Byzantine Empire, and as it still is understood in the Orthodox Christian East, means both the
The orthodox icon as a place and way of multiple encounters
The quaternary number of encounters a. The icon of the Lord The orthodox icon, as a theological language, “speaks” for multiple encounters and, at the
On the Divine Images I.16-17
16. In former times God, who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing