What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church

by Gavin Ortlund

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the theology of icons is grounded in the incarnation of Christ, who is the image of the Father. Since God has taken on human flesh, revelation takes the forms of both word and image. Thus, icons play an essential role in the church, standing alongside Scripture as how God reveals himself to us: “the icon is placed on a level with the Holy Scripture and with the Cross, as one of the forms of revelation and knowledge of God, in which Divine and human will and action become blended.”9 This is why, in Orthodox thinking, the denial of icons is a denial of the truth of the Incarnation. Icons also constitute a point of contact for the human response to divine revelation. As God became human, salvation now consists in the opposite, that the human might become god (deification)—not by nature, but by grace. This divine glory is reflected in the transfiguration of Christ.10 Icons function as a point of access to this realm of divine light and glory; they transmit to us the transfigured state of the saints. “The icon is not a representation of the Deity, but an indication of the participation of a given person in Divine life.”11 In this manner, icons become a means of striving after deification ourselves: “the icon is both the way and the means; it is prayer itself.”12

This is a very strong case for icon "veneration".