Becoming Icons Of Christ

Divinization: Becoming Icons of Christ through the Liturgy explains the startling claim, so often overlooked, that God transforms the Christian people through the Church’s liturgy to share in his divine nature. This resource serves as an excellent introduction to the Catholic theology of divinization through the Liturgy. This remarkable work forms a coherent introduction to how God makes the faithful in the pews partakers in his divine nature through the action of the liturgy.

Explores the origins and evolution of eleven visual iconic images still found in today's culture, including Jesus, the Coke bottle, and Einstein's famous equation, e equals mc squared.

"The third in a series of collections and talks and essays by Mother Raphaela, Becoming Icons of Christ continues the practical and plain-spoken advice on life and growth in Christ introduced and developed in the first two volumes." --from cover, page 4.

The pastoral office is one of the most critical in Christianity. Historically, however, Christians have not been able to agree on the precise nature and limits of that office. A specific area of contention has been the role of women in pastoral leadership. In recent decades, three broad types of arguments have been raised against women's ordination: nontheological (primarily cultural or political), Protestant, and Catholic. Reflecting their divergent understandings of the purpose of ordination, Protestant opponents of women's ordination tend to focus on issues of pastoral authority, while Catholic opponents highlight sacramental integrity. These positions are new developments and new theological stances, and thus no one in the current discussion can claim to be defending the church's historic position. Icons of Christ addresses these voices of opposition, making a biblical and theological case for the ordination of women to the ministerial office of Word and Sacrament. William Witt argues that not only those in favor of, but also those opposed to, women's ordination should embrace new theological positions in response to cultural changes of the modern era. Witt mounts a positive ecumenical argument for the ordination of women that touches on issues such as theological hermeneutics, relationships between men and women, Christology and discipleship, and the role of ordained clergy in leading the church in worship, among others. Uniquely, Icons of Christ treats both Protestant and Catholic theological concerns at length, undertaking a robust engagement with biblical exegesis and biblical, historical, systematic, and liturgical theology. The book's theological approach is critically orthodox, evangelical, and catholic. Witt offers the church an ecumenical vision of ordination to the presbyterate as an office of Word and Sacrament that justifiably is open to both men and women. Most critically Witt reminds us that, as all people are image-bearers of the divine, so men and women both are called to serve as icons of Christ in service of the gospel. --Alan G. Padgett, Professor of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary

This is the story of a handful of courageous men and their congregations who risked stable occupations, security and the approval of life-long friends to be obedient to God's call. It is also the story of every believer who is searching for the Church. Where Christ is Lord. Where holiness, human responsibility, and the sovereignty of God are preached. Where fellowship is more than a covered-dish supper in the church basement. And where fads and fashions take a backseat to apostolic worship and doctrine.

To present the life of Jesus with ancient byzantine icons, is a great blessing for me and also, a new way to introduce the Orthodoxy in the Chinese world. I made this book from my experience as, Orthodox teacher, by the blessing of our Metropolitan of Hong Kong & SE Asia Nektarios, and with the help of my spiritual father , archimandrite Jonah. Chinese language is pictorial, the Chinese characters are pictures, Chinese communicate using pictures. So I started to do the catechism , presenting to my people icons. The result was marvelous. The beginners could understand the life of Jesus much more better, than reading a text. But it is also something deeper. Because the icons have very deep spiritual meaning, and express the theology with colors and shapes, teaching by icons the life of Jesus, in parallel we teach the subconscious mind of the people the spirituality and the “ethos” of the Orthodox Church. According to professor G. Kordis, icons lead to communion, (Icons as communion, by Holy cross orthodox press ) so the Chinese people, gazing at the icons they have a deep taste of the Church life, or better they are immersed in her. The icons have also healing effect to the soul of the reader. They bring close to the grace of God which emerges from the icons, to the the feast of love, and so the result is healing the wounds of the soul. Our Church is decorated with many icons . We printed them very big. I asked the workers from the printing company -not Christians, and did not know anything about christianity- what is their feeling, gazing this (printed) icon. They told me they feel inner peace and inner comfort. They wanted to know who are the persons, Jesus, Holy mother etc… I want to point out that we choose in purpose, very famous and also ancient icons. The one reason is that they are almost about 1.000 years old so they do not violate copy-write (and we try to keep the fair use, lowering the resolution and the dpi (to 70) of the icons. They are all in Mount Athos, the unique monastic community of christianity which has history of about 1600 years (!). The holy fathers of this holy mountain (which spiritually belongs to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople) blessed our priest, Fr. Jonah Mourtos to come here, and he founded the Orthodox Church in Taiwan. we thank the holy Abbots and the Fathers of the monasteries, who allowed us to use the icons, to give the witness of the Orthodoxy in the east. By these holy icons, we want to show that the historical tradition and continuation of the Orthodoxy, too. In the Chinese world, from one point of view is the very sad thing the fact, the many people buy a Bible and create a church, their own Church from nowhere. But from the other point of view, the Chinese people appreciate the spiritual lineage and the originality of ideas, the one catholic and apostolic church as expressed by our church, without political, national or other non christian ideas. We present to our beloved readers, this originality of the byzantine holy art, so to feel the sweet comfort and blessing. And finally we present the icons as they “work” as their natural place is in the church, which is the icon of the universe. So our readers, who had not the opportunity to be in an Orthodox Church building, can see the icons dynamically serving the Church, which is the place where everything takes its real existence and purpose, in the Divine Liturgy. We did not write too much text to explain every icon, but we wrote only the passages from the bible, so the person who wants to learn, he can think first, then open the bible see the details, the holy text, see the icon again and gradually start to enter to the grace of the christian life and start to have a taste of the orthodoxy. All the credits to the fathers of Mt Athos who allowed as the bless us for this ebook, and the friends who helped and they do not want their names to be in public, but I know they will be reviled to all in the kingdom of God. My gratitude to Michael Kampuridis, Olga and Anna Stetsko, Spyros Gourvelos and their families. Pelagia Yu Chuan

This is the most comprehensive introduction available to the history and theology of the icon, and is the standard text upon which most modern studies of iconography are based. It includes more than the basic theory of the transfiguration of beauty and the sanctification of art. It is a fundamental element in the entire body of Orthodox Tradition. n this two-volume work, author Leonid Ouspensky provides the reader with a deep and serious approach to the mystery of the sacred image. He surveys the development of the sacred art of the Christian East from its beginnings in catacomb art through the iconoclastic controversy of the eighth and ninth century. Drawing especially on the Russian Orthodox tradition, the author studies a large number of texts with care and in great detail. He includes an analysis of the flowering of early Russian iconography, tracing its later development and the state of the art today. The 51 black and white photo illustrations, along with the four-panel foldout and six color plates, will enable the reader to appreciate the Orthodox icon with an informed mind and open heart. Volume I, originally published in 1978, has been updated by the author and contains large sections of new material [Publisher description]