Announcement: Response Series to Ortlund on Icons

Articles & Videos With Evidence of Icon Veneration in the Pre-Nicene Church

In a series of recent videos on his Youtube Channel, Protestant professor and pastor Gavin Ortlund has argued that the Scriptures and the pre-Nicene Church reject the veneration of icons. Ortlund’s challenge regarding the early Church is significant, and centers around four propositions:

1. Images existed in the early Church before 325AD, but were used for decorative and teaching purposes (or at least we have no good reason to think they were venerated).

2. A plentitude (or consensus) of pre-325AD Christian writers who speak about images denounce their cultic use. This is not just a denunciation of idols, but covers all image veneration practices

3. There are no known instances of mainstream Christian authors attesting to the Church having a practice of image veneration

4. The scholarly consensus affirms these 3 points (art for teaching & decoration, early authors all oppose cultic use of images, no positive affirmations of cultic use of images)

Ortlund puts forward what he believes to be strong evidence for each of these claims. Together, they constitute an “internal critique” of Orthodox theology and Roman Catholic theology which affirms (in the 7^th Ecumenical Council) that image veneration is good and even vital to true Christian practice. How can these Churches claim to have the mindset and practice of the early Church if their way of life (on this point of icon veneration at least) is the complete opposite of what early Christians did and said in rejecting icon veneration?

The videos he published have gained significant traction online (total views in the neighborhood of 100K) with numerous responses from vocal Catholic apologists and a few from Orthodox Christians as well. The general attitude online (and among people I’ve spoken with in-person) is that these responses have not been very strong. Most replies have focused on undercutting Dr. Ortlund’s inferences from the evidence he puts forward to the conclusion that there is an internal contradiction in Orthodoxy or Catholicism. Some have tried to undercut part of Dr. Ortlund’s claims about how to interpret the early evidence (as clearly rejecting all image veneration).

In response to Dr. Ortlund’s claims, I will be publishing a cumulative case that icons were venerated in the early Church (pre-325 AD). This will constitute not merely an undercutting of the evidence Dr. Ortlund gave, but a positive case for widespread pre-Nicene iconodulia (icon veneration) from numerous sources of information about the pre-Nicene Church. This will be corroborated by an examination of scholarship, which increasingly has shifted away from older “aniconist” interpretations of early Christian history and towards an emphasis on “ritual-centered visuality”. I will also offer explanations for why the evidence Dr. Ortlund and others bring up for proposition (2.) does not count against the claim that iconodulia was a widespread and normal practice in the pre-Nicene Church.

My arguments will be published in a series of presentations that I’ll be offering on Seraphim Hamilton’s YouTube Channel. The first presentation has been filmed and is slated for publication in late May, and at least 2-3 more presentations will follow over the summer.

Additionally, I will write a series of companion articles which expand on the content in the videos. These articles will help reinforce the case for veneration of icons in Christianity prior to 325 AD. I will make this content and more available in book form (with an intended book launch date over the summer).

I hope this will be edifying to all, and that it will clarify the truth about the early Church and her unbroken continuity with Orthodox Christian faith and practice today.