Baptists & Icons and Anglicans and Iconoclasm
The ceremonial, decorative or aesthetic dimension of church buildings presents an interesting topic for observation and reflection.
In early December, I was in the South of the USA in Georgia, which is, as they say, "Baptist country." There are millions of Baptists in this southern State and most of them are Southern Baptists!
What I saw in a couple of big Baptist churches was the recognition of Advent (the advent wreath with the five candles), the display of candles (to point to the Light than lightens every man - John 1 ), the Crib waiting to make its entrance nearer to Christmas, and on the wall behind the pulpit a large Cross. There will be a Christmas Tree in the Vestibule or some other prominent place. There will be Nativity plays and the choir will all be robed for Sunday worship as if they were singing in a Cathedral.
An earnest Calvinist asked me: "Have these people not heard of the Reformation and the putting away of images and icons by sound Protestants?"
I do not know how much detail of the Protestant Reformation (or the Puritan ascendancy under Oliver Cromwell) the thousands of members of these churches actually are familiar with. What seems reasonably clear is that they do not see any connection between on the one hand the iconoclasm, or setting aside of visual aids to prayer and worship, which happened in the 16th & 17th centuries and on the other hand their desire to have visual aids to prayer and worship in 2002. The contexts are so wholly different.
The fact of the matter is that the Baptists of Georgia, who are famed for their Bible-based religion, see such things as an Advent wreath, a Crib, Candles, a Nativity Play and the Cross as visual helps to focus their minds on the contents of the Bible, the faith of their Creed and especially (in a culture which is dominated by images through the media) to keep their young people focused and interested in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born in a stable and crucified on a Cross.
The Baptists of Georgia are not looking over their shoulder at the Roman Catholic Church and seeking to be as different as they can from Catholics in worship. They are the majority and so they decide what to do on the basis of what they think will help the spread of their understanding and practice of Christianity! And in this image/visual age they see that they need more than bare churches and black covered Bibles! They need icons or visual aids if they are to make their Faith meaningful in the modern culture.
Now let us cross the ocean Eastwards and visit the few Anglican parishes in Britain which support Orangeism (Irish Protestantism) or are in the "Reform" group or are excessively Protestant (say 2 per cent of the whole). Here you will most likely see no Cross in the church, no Advent wreath, no candles on the Holy Table, no Nativity Play and no Crib. Only the Christmas tree which has no connection historically with Romanism will be allowed, and this in and of itself, is not a Christian symbol. (It becomes so by association with other visual aids like the Crib)
Why this rejection of Cross and Crib? Because the mental paradigm by which they look upon and evaluate Christianity is dominated by an anti-popery and anti-icon mindset. They think as did some of the Reformers in the 16th century and many of the Puritans in the seventeenth century. That is, they see visual aids as idols in disguise as left-overs of popery and the religion of antichrist. They have no idea that Vatican II made great changes in the Roman Catholic Church or that visual aids have always been blessed by the church to help our imagination be focused.
To return to the USA.
What the Baptists in Georgia have discovered (even though few of them realise it) is the distinction made by the seventh ecumenical council of the Church at Nicea in 787 concerning veneration and worship/adoration. The Cross & the Crib, the holy picture and the holy statue, point to the Lord Jesus Christ or to his Blessed Mother or to his Apostles/Saints. These artifacts are certainly not to be worshipped; but they actually help the imagination to focus on the living Lord and the blessed company of saints and angels who surround him. Worship is only to be offered to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Visual aids help us to understand the Gospel message the better and thus to engage in that adoration of God himself. The text of the Bible and the visual aids are to be venerated but not adored. Only God the Holy Trinity is to be worshipped.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
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