Images and Our Nous

An interesting article published by The BioLogos Forum.

Andrei Rublev, "The Holy Trinity,” ca. 1411. Tempera, gold leaf on panel, 56” x 45”. (Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.)

Today's essay was written by Frederica Matthews-Greene, a prolific writer and speaker, especially on the applicability of the most ancient modes of Christian faith to the modern world. As an adult convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, she came only reluctantly to an Eastern understanding of the way icons represent the connection and overlap between the material and spiritual facets of reality. But that understanding may be very helpful as we consider how and why we “know” the world through both science and Scripture, for, as she has said, “the world is evangelizing you in images constantly” (Christianity Today interview with Dick Staub. September, 2003). In other words, a fully human, deeply Christ-centered approach to the creation will recognize that the world as we find it will speak to us of the Lord, but not in the same, explicit way that the Bible speaks to us of Him. As you read her explanation of the way icons in the Eastern Church tune our attention to God, consider that nature may be seen to work in exactly the same way—neither the object of worship or a direct “picture” of God, but a revelation of His presence, nonetheless.

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