Icon

An icon (from Greek {{polytonic|?????}}, eikon, "image") is an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it, or by analogy, as in semiotics; in computers an icon is a symbol on the monitor used to signify a command; by extension, icon is also used, particularly in modern popular culture, in the general sense of symbol — i.e. a name, face, picture or even a person readily recognized as having some well-known significance or embodying certain qualities.

Icons and Images in Contemporary Christianity

Today attitudes can vary even from church to church within a given denomination, whether Catholic or Protestant. Protestants generally use religious art for teaching and for inspiration, but such images are not venerated as in Orthodoxy, and many Protestant church sanctuaries contain no imagery at all.

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After the Second Vatican Council declared in the 1960s that the use of statues and pictures in churches should be moderate, most statuary was removed from many Catholic Churches. Eastern Orthodoxy, however, continues to give such strong importance to the use and veneration of icons that they are often seen as the chief symbol of Orthodoxy. Catholicism has a long tradition of valuing the arts and patronized a significant number of famous artists. Present-day imagery within Roman Catholicism varies in style from traditional to modern, and is often affected by trends in the art world in general.

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Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used.) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity.

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Historically and even today among conservative Eastern Orthodox there are reports of miraculous icons that exude a fragrant, healing oil. When these reports are verified by Orthodox clergy, they are still explained as miracles performed by God through the prayers of the saint, rather than being magical properties of the painted wood itself.

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