POPES AND ICONS

Venerating icons is a trade-mark of Eastern Christianity. Venerating popes is a trade-mark of Western Christianity (at least until 16th c.)

Veneration of icons was an object of immense struggle in 8th c. Byzantine emperors and bishops opposed it. Icon is a symbol, "bridge between sky and earth". But there are a lot of symbols in any religion. Middle Ages is the epoch of symbols, and the sense of Middle Ages can be determined as an attempt to build the City of God with symbols on earth.

Icon is a unique type of symbol. It is out of control of all earthly powers. Kings and bishops can control any sides of religious life: sacraments, education, charity. Only icon is out of control. Anyone can make an icon and venerate it without any permission, and the icon will be a symbol of direct connection with Heavens for this human, whether priests or ceasars enjoy it or not.

The same can be said about a Pope. Due to primacy, which includes independence from any secular powers (even Emperor) and even from Ecumenical council, he is a symbol of Christ, unique in his independence among other numerous symbols. People can control synods, bishops, learning, they can control anything except Pope.

Icons and popes have been defended by monks. In the East, when all bishops agreed to prohibit icons, monks defended them. In the West, monks with each century have been most active supporters of Pope�s primacy in the Church against the isolationist and nationalist politics of bishops.

The independence of icons and Popes makes them both very disturbing element for earthly powers. Eastern rulers tried to exterminate icons as an object of direct personal appeal to Christ, Western rulers on the same grounds tried to exterminate Popes. This is natural. The mystery is why certain rulers venerated icons and improved Pope�s primacy, although this contradicted to the spirit of Caesar�s domination. The reason is that even Caesar is a human being. He personally can believe in icons or Pope although this undermines the political system which he rules. Political system tends to be totalitarian, but human nature of its leaders (not to mention subjects) opposes to totalitarianism.

Icons occupy in Eastern mentality place which Popes occupy in Western mentality. I hope that this observation can help to Eastern Orthodox understand Catholics (as it helped to me), to get a flash of sympathy to the most hatred (for Easterners) part of Catholic psychology.

Venerating icons and popes is the result of one and the same psychological and theological need, only forms are different. The difference is one more manifestation of basic difference between West and East. Sometimes this difference is explained as the difference between legalistic world-view of Romans and Eastern mysticism. Westerners are more interested in administration, Easterners in theology. I think it is more precise to say that West and East express one and the same ideas through different language: West prefers the language of humanity, inter-personal relations, East prefers the language of Divinity, relations between humans and God.

I also hope that this conception can help to those Westerners who made an upheaval against Pope�s primacy: Protestants. Their upheaval only put the Bible on the place of the Pope. Eastern Orthodox and Catholics are as reluctant to feel the meaning of the Bible to Protestants as Protestants are reluctant to feel the meaning of icons to Eastern Orthodox or Pope�s primacy to Catholics.

The problems with icons, popes and Bibles begin in two cases. First, anyone can perverse symbol to idol. Icons can be objects of idol-worshipping to Eastern Orthodox, popes to Roman Catholics and Bibles to Protestants. Only grace can save from such a perversion, not elimination of icons, popes, Bibles. Second, Second, any virtue is good to the point of aggression against other virtues. It is good to venerate icons, sin begins when icon-venerator begins to criticize papacy or Protestantism as heresy. All too often defenders of Popes or Bibles aggressively rejected Eastern Orthodoxy as "barbarous."