Idol Speculation - Do Catholics
worship idols?
By Dwight Longenecker
I was brought up in Pennsylvania
in an independent Bible Church. Our church building was a large
auditorium designed
for people to listen to Bible-based sermons. At the front was a
big central pulpit and behind the preacher were some pews for the
choir. Behind the choir was a recessed baptismal pool, and on the
wall behind the pool was a large empty cross. In the church building
there were no stained glass windows. There were no Stations of
the Cross. There were no flowers. There were no candles. There
were no statues of saints.
After college I had the
chance to travel and I visited both Europe and India. In France
I went into a Catholic cathedral
for the first time. As I stepped into the cathedral of Notre Dame
in Paris, the interior was dark due to the deep colours of the
stained glass windows. Amidst the musty antiquity I could smell
the faint fragrance of incense and flowers. Little side chapels
dedicated to various saints broke up the vast space of the interior.
I went into one and saw in the shadows, the statue of a woman high
above an altar. She was dressed in blue, wore a crown and held
a child. Beneath her feet a serpent writhed in terror. On and around
the altar were vases full of flowers. Banks of candles guttered
in the darkness, and when I looked around I saw that there were
two or three old women kneeling in prayer, gazing up at the statue
of Mary.
When I went to India a
few years after that I visited a Hindu temple. Like the Catholic
cathedral, inside the temple
was an altar before a statue. Offerings of flowers were everywhere.
Joss sticks of incense and rows of oil lamps burnt before the image
of the pagan god. All around people knelt or stood in prayer.
Coming from my background both Catholicism
and Hinduism seemed equally foreign. In fact, Catholicism seemed
to be more
similar to the pagan Hinduism than it did to my form of Christianity.
I remembered the lurid and sensational Chick tracts I’d read as
a child and could have concluded that Catholicism really was just
as pagan as it’s Protestant critics made out.
Similarity and Same-ness
I could have made that conclusion,
but I didn’t, because by the
time I was travelling I was already an Anglican. I was studying
theology in England and had come to accept that Catholic forms
of Christianity were authentic. In visiting the medieval churches
and cathedrals of Europe I couldn’t help but be struck by the beauty,
antiquity and power of the Christian art on display. But the visit
to India also made me aware of how very different Christianity
is from Hinduism.
That might seem strange because the
visit to the Hindu Temple and the Catholic cathedral actually
revealed the similarities between
the two religions. Both the cathedral and the temple had statues
on display for devotional purposes. In both the temple and the
cathedral there was an altar placed in front of the statue. In
both of them people were lighting candles in front of the statues.
In both of them people placed offerings of flowers in front of
the statues. Both groups both of people were praying in front of
the statues. Mustn’t we conclude that both groups of people were,
in fact, praying to the statues? Weren’t both groups worshipping
idols?
Its true that there are similarities
between Catholic worship and pagan worship. But that’s what you would expect isn’t it? They’re
both world religions, and people do the same kind of religious
things no matter what their religion. We don’t throw out elements
of Christianity just because the same elements happen to exist
in other religions. If we eliminated everything that was similar
to other religions we would have to throw out Scripture and cancel
our Bible studies because Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists also
have Holy Scriptures and spend time studying their Holy Books.
Just because two things are similar
it doesn’t mean they’re the
same, or that they’ve come from the same place, or that they’re
headed in the same direction. To say that Catholicism is the same
as paganism just because there are some things that look similar
is like saying a Cadillac and a Corvette are the same thing. It’s
true that they’re both cars, and there are many similarities between
them. Both Cadillacs and Corvettes have glove compartments, exhaust
pipes, four wheels and a trunk. But the Cadillac and the Corvette
are also very different. It’s the same between pagan worship and
Catholic worship. They have similarities, but they also have very
important differences.
Saints and Monsters
Look more closely at the two kinds
of statues. The Hindu statues are strange and frightening. Some
of the pagan gods are nice—like
the cheerful, blue skinned god Krishna. Some are cute like Ganesh,
the elephant god. But more often the Hindu god is a beast of some
kind. It is likely to have the body of a man and the head of a
monster or a monkey. The Hindu statue might be a representation
of the goddess Kali—a fearsome demon with eight arms. She is black,
with a blood red tongue stuck out, and she wears a necklace of
skulls. Consider the ancient pagan gods of Babylon, Egypt or Caanan.
They are nightmarish hybrids -- Wolf-men, bull-men, falcon-men.
Think of the idols of primitive tribes: they are gruesome, bewildering
and bizarre, and although the pagan statues represent ‘gods’ we
know they actually represent those fallen spiritual beings otherwise
known as demons.
Now look again at the statues in a
Catholic Church. They simply are not the same thing at all. These
are the images of real people.
There’s Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth. There’s Mary, his wife.
There is Francis, the beggar saint from Assissi, and over there
is Theresa—the teenaged French nun looking like the fresh faced
girl next door. Look, there is Peter, stern and brave, and over
there is Anthony—ready to preach the word. These are not images
of fearful demonic beings who demand your worship. These are not
frightening demi-gods who will devour you if you do not please
them. These are images of ordinary people who have become extraordinary
because they have given everything to God. These are God’s advertisements
for a special free gift called grace. These are our friends, our
mentors and our role models. These images are more like a family
portrait gallery than a chamber of horrors full of demonic gods
and goddesses.
Comparing the two types of statues makes us realise that the differences
between two types of religion are more important than their similarities.
The pagan images are images from hell. The Christian images are
images from heaven. The pagan images portray demons who set themselves
up as false gods. The Christian images portray saints who worship
around the throne of the one true God. The pagan images are gruesome.
The Christian images are awesome. The pagan gods are the fallen
beings of the underworld. The Christian saints are those who have
been raised up to the highest heights.
No Graven Images
Some years ago I was poking around a medieval church in England
with an Evangelical friend named Tom. We were both interested in
the dusty old history of the place. I was caught up in the sense
of holiness in the ancient house of prayer, but I sensed that my
friend was not totally happy. Suddenly Tom stopped and pointed
with a snort of dismay. Over the door he had spotted a carved medieval
image of St Michael battling the devil.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
‘Second commandment’ he
said.
‘What?’
‘Thou shalt not make unto
yourself any graven image.’
Immediately he left the church and refused to visit any more of
these temples for idols.
Can the Old Testament commandment, ‘Thou shalt not
make any graven images’ really mean that no images are allowed
in churches at all? Its impossible that this is the true meaning
of that commandment since later on in the Book of Exodus God actually
commands Moses to make a graven image for worship. In Exodus 25.18-20
Moses is told to make two great cherubim out of wood. They are
to be covered with gold and placed over the Ark of the Covenant.
In Exodus 26.31 the veil in the tabernacle is meant to woven with
images of cherubim and in Numbers 21.8-9 God commands Moses to
make a bronze serpent so that the people, who were smitten with
snakebite, might look on it and live. Furthermore, when you read
about the temple that Solomon built, there are beautiful and powerful
images all over the place. The great basin to wash the sacrifices
sits on the back of twelve bronze bulls, (2 Chronicles 4.4) images
of cherubim were woven into the veils of the temple (2 Chronicles
3.14) and magnificent statues of cherubim were made for the Holy
of Holies (2 Chronicles 3.10-13)
According to the Bible itself, the commandment
against graven images is not a blanket condemnation of all religious
images.
Instead the second commandment (according to non-Catholics) is
a commandment against two things. Most importantly, it is linked
with the first commandment that the Hebrews are to have only one
God. That’s why Catholics read the two commandments together. The
law to have just one God is the most important part of this first
commandment. All the other cultures around the Jews were polytheistic.
They worshipped a whole range of gods. The first commandment to
the Jews is the simple one that, despite all the cultural pressure,
they were to worship only the Lord. The second reason for the commandment
against graven images is, in order to help the Jews focus on their
one Lord, all the false idols were to be destroyed. So they wouldn’t
fall back into devil worship, they were not to make any new images
of demons.
Made in the Image of God
There is an even
more profound reason why God told the Jews not to worship images
of demons. Not only were images
of the demonic beings forbidden, but they were also forbidden to
make any images of their own God—the Lord. This is because they were
created in the image of God. The astounding truth is that the true
image of God was there amongst them in their crude camp in the
Sinai desert.
Each of their brothers and sisters was a
son or daughter of Adam and Eve, and so each one of them was also
created in the
image of God. The pagan wolf-men, falcon-men and bull gods were
just a lot of bull. They were false gods because the real images
of God were real men and women. It took a while for this amazing
truth to sink in because, although the Hebrew men and women had
been created in the image of God, that image had been terribly
wounded and soiled by sin. Nevertheless, God didn’t forbid images
because images of God were impossible, but because people had been
tempted to look to the wrong images. If we have the wrong answer
to a problem sometimes that wrong answer has to be hammered out
of us to make room for the right answer. The reason they were not
to have images of God was because they were the image of their
God—a God who was called Emmanuel—God is with us.
God wanted the Hebrews to be aware that
they were created in his image for a very important reason. Each
of them
were a pointer to an even more marvellous part of God’s plan. This
reveals the most amazing reason for the prohibition of false images.
False images were outlawed because God wanted the people to look
beyond themselves, created things and monster gods for something
better. False images of God were banned because the true and perfect
image of God was yet to come. From the time of Adam and Eve’s bad
decision God was planning for a time when he would send forth his
son born of a woman. First he prepared a perfect image of woman
in Mary, and when she said ‘yes’ to God the way opened up for the
perfect image of God and the image of perfect Man to be revealed
for all time.
The Image of the Unseen God
St Paul tells us
that Jesus Christ is ‘the
image of the unseen God.’ (Col. 1:15) In other words, in Jesus
we see what God is really like. The reason images were forbidden
in the Old Testament was that God’s intended image was still to
come. While graven images of God were forbidden the Old Testament,
there were plenty of word pictures of God. The images are rich
and abundant. God is portrayed as a Good Shepherd, a Faithful Husband
or a Glorious King. God bears the image of a Loving Father, a Suffering
Servant, the Powerful Creator or a Heavenly Master. When Jesus
comes, the gospels show how he fulfils and completes each one of
these Old Testament images of God.
Once Jesus, the true image
of God, came to earth images were not only allowed, but necessary.
So each image of Jesus Christ
reminds us that he is the image of the unseen God. Whether it is
in a Crucifix, the Stations of the Cross, an icon of Christ, a
mosaic, a painting or a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, each
image of the Lord is a reminder that he is the image of the Unseen
God. He is God made visible.
Furthermore, if we were originally made
in the image of God. Jesus the God-Man has come in order to restore
that image
to its perfection. St Paul says, ‘Just as we have born the image
of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of
heaven.’ (I Cor. 15.49) We are being renewed in knowledge in the
image of our creator (Col. 3:10) In other words, ‘we shall be like
him.’ (I John 3:2) The purpose of Jesus’ work on earth is not only
to redeem us, but to transform us into his likeness. Catholics
have images in church not just to be reminded of role models, but
to be reminded that our destiny is to be transformed into the likeness
of Christ. Each image of a saint in a Catholic Church is a reminder
that that real, historical person was transformed by God’s grace
to show forth the image of Christ in the world.
Whenever you see a Catholic image therefore, you are really looking
at an image of Jesus Christ, for each saint is a window through
whom Christ can be seen. Each saint has been transformed into the
image of Christ while he is also being made into all that God created
him to be. So when you see a statue of the Virgin Mary or Saint
Joseph or Saint Anthony in a way you are looking at another version
of Jesus because you are looking at a person who has been transformed
into a real and living icon of Christ.
Iconoclasm and the 3Ms
‘Iconoclasm’ is a wonderful and scary word. It sounds a bit dangerous--
In fact, ‘iconoclasm’ is a dangerous word because it means ‘destruction
of the images.’ The iconoclasm controversy in the eighth century
saw theologians, emperors, empresses, archbishops and armies fighting
over whether or not Christians were allowed to have images in their
churches. In the seventh century several forces had made Christians
suspicious of physical images. The Monophysites were a group of
Christians who de-emphasized the physical aspect of Jesus’ humanity.
The Manichaeans were a group of philosophers who thought the physical
world was evil. At the same time, in the Eastern Church, the new
religion of Mohammedism or Islam, was on the march. These three ‘M’s’ of
Monophysitism, Manichaenism and Mohammedism made people conclude
that all images were wrong. At one point The Emperor Leo III actually
sent in the troops to pull down all the icons and burn them. There
were riots. Appeals were made to the Pope, and theologians set
about trying to defend the use of icons.
St
John of Damascus was the chief among them, and he said, “The apostles saw
Christ bodily, his sufferings and his miracles and they heard his
words. We are double beings with a body and soul…it is impossible
for us to have access to the spiritual without the corporeal, while
listening to audible words we hear with our corporeal ears and
thus grasp spiritual things. In the same way it is through corporeal
seeing that we arrive at spiritual insight.” In other words, “We
are physical people and it makes sense for us to have physical
worship.” This argument points to an even more profound reason
for images in worship.
If we really
believe in the incarnation, and if we really believe that ordinary
human beings can be transformed into the likeness of Christ, than
this transformation actually includes our physical bodies. It is
not just our souls that are saved, but all of us. St Paul says,
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall
certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Rom 6:5)
This means our bodies will be transformed and glorified, and if
this is true, then it makes sense to have physical images in our
churches to remind us of those who have already gone through this
real and everlasting transformation.
Eighth Century
and Twenty First Century
The
arguments hammered out in the Eighth century in Greece are still
relevant
today. The three “M’s” haven’t died out. There is a trend in both
Catholic and Protestant circles to de-emphasize the physical reality
of Jesus’ life like the Monophysites did. People may not formally
teach that Jesus was not fully human, but they behave like that’s
what they believe. They treat Jesus like Superman—a character who
looks like a man, but who is really an alien creature with super
powers. Others treat Jesus like a squeaky clean miracle working
All American boy or they treat him like a radiant God who never
really dirtied his feet. Sometimes this tendency portrays Jesus
as an otherworldly, poetic, intellectual—a sublime spiritual teacher
who was above ordinary passions.
The
tendency to de-emphasize Jesus’ physical nature is often combined with a
practical kind of Manichean approach to life. When this happens
people consider the physical world to be inferior or even sinful.
Christians who fall into this error sometimes become obsessively
tidy, and consider sexual sins as the only real sin. Their worship
becomes overly intellectual or overly ‘spiritual’ with long prayers
and academic study. Another form of this fault is excessive tastefulness
in religion. Some people have such lofty taste that only the finest
architecture will do. Only the most sublime music and liturgy are
satisfactory, and they look down their nose at “crude” statues
and “common” religious imagery. In fact these spiritual snobs are
really looking down on the whole ordinary physical world as being
inferior to the intellectual, artistic and spiritual.
At
the same time the religion of Islam is still surging forward
more strongly
than ever. Liked with the other two “M’s” Mohammedism teaches the
sinfulness of religious images. It does so because it cannot comprehend
that any image of the Lord might be possible. Unlike the other
two “M’s” Mohammedism specifically repudiates the incarnation of
Jesus Christ, and in doing so, reveals what is actually hidden
in the anti-physical approach of Manichaenism and the heresy of
Monophysitism.
Taste,
Tackiness and True Worship
In
the place of these iconoclastic views, Catholics should be unapologetic
about
our use of images and physical things in worship. The fact that
we worship the Lord using physical things is nothing to be ashamed
of. God has not created us as purely spiritual beings. We humans
are these strange, wonderful and contradictory hybrids of mud and
spirit—we are incarnate souls. God gave us bodies to glory in them.
The fact that we are physical and spiritual is part of our glory.
In fact, there is an old legend that the devil was jealous of Adam
because God had made him both spiritual and physical, while the
devil, as a fallen angel, was only spiritual.
The
fact of the matter is, God gave us physical bodies, and just as
a bride says to her husband, ‘With my body I honor thee.’ So we
say to our bridegroom, Jesus Christ, “With my body I honor thee.” We
honor him when we smell the incense and flowers. We honor him when
we see the beauty of magnificent architecture and the tender beauty
of a masterwork of sculpture, painting, tapestry or stained glass.
We honor him with our ears when we hear the glorious strains of
hymn and psalms and spiritual songs. We honor him with our voices
as we sing and we honor him with our bodies and as we genuflect
or kneel in prayer.
When
we venerate an image of Jesus, Mary or the saints in our devotions
we are honoring them, but we are also praising the God for the
fact that through their physical lives, his glory is revealed.
When we use physical images in our worship we are praising God
for the physical and glorying in the fact that in Jesus Christ,”the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth;
we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father…and
from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace.
Dwight Longenecker
writes from England. His latest book, More Christianity is published
by Our Sunday Visitor.
