SOURCE: Introduction to On the Divine Images: Three Apologies against Those Who Attack the Divine Images, by St. John of Damascus, translated by David Anderson, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1980, pp. 7-12.

In the introduction that follows, written in 1979, Anderson argues that On the Divine Images, in which St. John of Damascus defended the veneration of images, retains its significance even today, especially with regard to tensions within present-day Christianity.

The iconoclastic controversy begun in the eighth century by the Byzantine emperor Leo III (717-741) and continued by his successor Constantine V (741-775) cannot be considered in isolation from the Christological controversies of the preceding centuries.¹ Just as earlier ecumenical councils had insisted that the incarnation of Jesus Christ united the second person of the Holy Trinity with human nature, thus making salvation possible by breaking down the wall of separation between God and man, so also the seventh...