The Dwelling of the Light: Praying With Icons of Christ

Rating:
Summary: Lux et veritas
Review: 'The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ' is a companion volume to 'Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin', a recent book by Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury after a distinguished career as an academic and cleric in the Churches of England and Wales (Anglican Church). Williams has a great affinity for the wider breadth of Christian experience, drawing influences and inspiration from Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox practices across the centuries. In this book, Williams continues to explore ways in which meditation and prayer can be strengthened and enhanced with incorporation of iconographic images, this time with icons of Christ.

Protestants particularly have lost the tradition of the use of art work as representative objects for worship. However, the debate over the appropriateness of icons and other imagery is almost as old as Christianity itself. There was a time when icons of Christ were banned because Jesus, being of divine nature, wasn't suitable for depiction. That Jesus could be depicted without violation of the 'no graven images' commandment took a long time to be decided, and finally was deemed permissible because of Jesus' human nature. Rare the depiction of God or God the Father as anything more than a cloud, a hand, or some other vague symbol meant to characterise, more than anything else, the mystery involved rather than an actual physical likeness. Michaelangelo's depictions on the Sistine Chapel ceiling are remarkable not simply from their aesthetic quality, but also in that the image of God is very direct and distinctly human in form. Williams devotes many pages of the introduction to looking at precisely the issue of the theology behind the depiction of Jesus.

However, icons are a special form of art. They are not simple paintings, however elegant, but take the form, from their origination to their veneration, as a form of prayer in and of themselves in very real ways. Christian art was a long time in developing (indeed, the earliest Christians were sometimes thought to be atheists since they had no visible evidence of gods around).

This is a small book. It has a mere 85 pages or so of text, and thus could be read fairly quickly. However, to do so would be to deny oneself the richness of the experience. One can glance at an icon, generally a fairly small object, and think one has seen it. However, the true experience of an icon, and the true experience of this book, comes from re-reading, stopping, meditating, and slowly working through each detail. The book is generously illustrated in word and graphic art. Each of the icons is presented in full colour, with details highlighted in larger size at appropriate points in the text.

Through all the meditations, we are looking for God, and hopefully come to realise that God also looks for us. As Williams said in the previous volume, we find the God who has taken up residence in the heart of our humanity, who prays when we are not looking, not trying, who is at work when we are silent or helpless, and who can never be pinned down to a here or there in our individual lives or in the Church at large.

The icons presented here are depictions of the Transfiguration, the Resurrection, the Hospitality of Abraham, and the Pantocrator. The Transfiguration shows a Jesus in white with a holy representation around him; Moses and Elijah join him as the three disciples sleep in the foreground. Just as Jesus was himself changed, looking at Jesus changes things for us, and the icon drives this home. Ironically, the gospel of John is the gospel which has no Transfiguration story; however, looking at this icon gives the impression that the whole of John's gospel is a story of Transfiguration, so the depiction of Jesus as the Christ is always present in the reading.

The Resurrection is, of course, the pivotal event in the Christian story. The fifteenth century icon shows the risen Christ at the open door, but not of the tomb, but rather the gates of hell. The Resurrection is a point of liberation, and this icon shows the redemption of Adam and Eve (among others), symbolising in a very dramatic way the redemption offered to all humankind. The Resurrection is new birth and new creation, and a bridging of divisions created by sin. All these can be seen in the iconographic image.

The fifteenth century icon by Andrei Rublev of the portrayal of the Hospitality of Abraham may seem like a strange departure in icons about the life and figure of Christ, but in fact in much of Christian thinking, the visitors to Abraham are a prefigured Trinity. The three angels who visit Abraham at the oaks at Mamre represent for later Trinitarian Christians the idea of the Christ who always was, and is, and is to come. There are only three figures - the depiction of Abraham, whose hospitality is highlighted, is missing. The three angelic figures are all human in form, which makes it an impossible literal rendering of the Trinity. As with most icons, the gaze and hand gestures reveal the story, and the icon depicts a proto-trinity very much in Orthodox creedal fashion.

The final icon, Pantocrator, is one of the most familiar of icons of the twentieth century, depicting Christ in the most familiar of roles - that of judge and ruler of the world. The icon shows a benevolent Christ, and unlike many icons, has words to reinforce the meaning - 'Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.' Christ is a humble person still mighty in power; not depicted as a royal (no crown) or militant, there is simple truth here.

The power of icons resides in their continuing ability to draw forth new meaning from sustained meditations. This book helps to reinforce this power, and, with the earlier volume, opens up for all, Orthodox or not, one of the true glories of Orthodox Christianity's contribution to the spiritual life of the world.