ἀνεικονισμός
Without images.
Tagged: Buddhist Christian Jewish Muslim
Technical Meaning
The avoidance of images of divine or sacred beings, whether by prohibition, by custom, or by theology. The term is a modern scholarly coinage, and it names a spectrum rather than a single stance: Islam's refusal to depict God and the prophets, early Buddhism's figureless symbols such as the footprint and the empty throne, and strands of Jewish and Reformed practice all stand on it differently. Aniconism never means an absence of art; calligraphy, geometry, architecture, and symbol carry the visual culture where figures are refused.
More Greek Terms
Glossary Term
apophatic
By denial or negation.
Glossary Term
cataphatic
By affirmation.
Glossary Term
homoousios
Of the same essence or substance.
Glossary Term
hypostasis
That which stands under; a subsistence.
Glossary Term
icon
Image; likeness.
Glossary Term
iconoclasm
Image-breaking.
Glossary Term
kenosis
An emptying.
Glossary Term
oikonomia
Household management; the stewardship of a house.
Glossary Term
ousia
Being; essence; substance.
Glossary Term
perichoresis
A going around together; mutual indwelling.
Glossary Term
theologia
Speech about God; discourse concerning divine things.
Glossary Term
theosis
Deification; being made god.
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