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Held in Nicea, Asia Minor in 787. Under Empress Irene. 367 Bishops were present.
The Iconoclast Controversy
It centered around the use of icons in the Church and the controversy between the iconoclasts and iconophiles. The Iconoclasts were suspicious of religious art; they demanded that the Church rid itself of such art and that it be destroyed or broken (as the term "iconoclast" implies).
The iconophilles believed that icons served to preserve the doctrinal teachings of the Church; they considered icons to be man's dynamic way of expressing the divine through art and beauty. The Iconoclast controversy was a form of Monophysitism: distrust and downgrading of the human side.
The Council's Proclamation
"We define that the holy icons, whether in color, mosaic, or some other material,
should be exhibited in the holy churches of God, on the sacred vessels
and liturgical vestments, on the walls, furnishings
Published - January 2011
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