Iconoclasm (Eikonoklasmos, “Image-breaking”) is the name of the heresy that in the eighth and ninth centuries disturbed the peace of the Eastern Ch...
A second belief-generating mode of reflexivity is the objectification of religion resulting from the exposure of ritual secrets and the current politicisation of ritual practice and cult organisations.doi:10.1111/j.1469-8676.2002.tb00046.xChristian K. Højbjerg...
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them….(Exodus 20:4–5, NRSV) The iconophiles countered that wh...
In early September of 1566, the Catholic parishioners of St. Ursula’s Church in the northern Dutch village of Warmenhuizen had reason to worry for their future. Just a month earlier, Calvinist militants had begun their Beeldenstorm of ruthless...
Constans II Pogonatus was a Byzantine (Eastern Roman) emperor whose reign saw the loss of Byzantium’s southern and eastern provinces to the Arabs. The son of the emperor Constantine III, Constans came to the throne in September 641, at age 11, after his
Justin I was a Byzantine emperor (from 518) who was a champion of Christian orthodoxy; he was the uncle and predecessor of the great emperor Justinian. Born of Illyrian peasant stock, Justin was a swineherd in his youth. At about the age of 20 he went to