THEODORE THE STUDITE: WRITINGS ON ICONOCLASM

TRANSLATED AND INTRODUCED

BY

THOMAS CATTOI

THE NEWMAN PRESS

New York/Mahwah, NJ

COPYRIGHT © 2015 BY THOMAS CATTOI

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Theodore, Studites, Saint, 759-826.

[Works. Selections. English. 2014]

Writings on iconoclasm / Theodore the Studite ; translated and introduced by Thomas Cattoi.

pages cm. — (Ancient Christian writers ; 69)

Includes bibliographical references and indices.

ISBN 978-0-8091-0611-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-58768-424-1 (e-book)

1. Iconoclasm. 2. Icons—Cult—History of doctrines—Middle Ages, 600-1500. 3. Icons—Cult—Byzantine Empire. 4. Byzantine Empire—Church history. I. Title.

BR238.T4413 2014

246`.53—dc23

2014018123

ISBN 978-0-8091-0611-0 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-58768-424-1 (e-book)

Published by The Newman Press

an imprint of Paulist Press

997 Macarthur Boulevard

Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

www.paulistpress.com

Ancient Christian Writers

THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS IN TRANSLATION

ADVISORY BOARD

Boniface Ramsey, Chair

John Dillon

Jeremy Driscoll

Thomas Macy Finn

Thomas L. Knoebel

Joseph Lienhard

John A. McGuckin

No. 69

CONTENTS

Introduction

Writings on Iconoclasm

First Refutation of the Iconoclasts

Second Refutation of the Iconoclasts

Third Refutation of the Iconoclasts

Seven Chapters against the Iconoclasts

Some Questions Posed to the Iconoclasts

Letter to His Own Father Plato about the Veneration of the Sacred Images

Refutation and Subversion of the Impious Poems

Appendix: Celebratory Canon

Bibliography

General Index

Scripture Index

INTRODUCTION

“The icon masters of old were never concerned with earthly matters … but always raised their spirit and their thoughts toward the light which is divine and immaterial.”

Joseph of Volokolamsk,

Message to an Iconographer1

In Defense of Orthodoxy: Theodore the Studite and the Second Iconoclastic Crisis

Theodore the Studite (759–826) is one of the most important personalities in the period of Eastern Christian theology that followed the Second Council of Nicaea (787). The purpose of this volume is to offer to an English-speaking public all the writings of Theodore that were devoted to the question of the veneration of sacred images. Iconoclasm was Theodore’s chief preoccupation during the second part of his life; it led to the composition of his chief polemical works—the three Antirrhetici and the Seven Chapters against the Iconoclasts—as well as his refutations, in verse, of different poetic compositions by members of the iconoclastic party.

Theodore the Studite lived and worked at the very end of the Patristic era and brought together in his vision different elements from the trinitarian theology of the Cappadocian fathers and the great ...