Picture worth a thousand words - Stephen Mason

In “Images and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture,” Turner describes the conflict between the people who want the depiction of icons in the church and the people that do not. The people that believe icons are sacrilegious cite that idea that the worship of icons is a form of idolatry, which violate one of the Ten Commandments. Although the idea of icons may to some people reflect the wrongful idea of idolatry, I believe that the portraying of icons in religious places can be beneficial. The worship of icons is not the worship of the material itself but what the material represents. This is similar to the idea of the “mask of the holy” brought up by Lane in “Landscapes of the Sacred.” To many people the idea of something as metaphysical as God can be a difficult concept to understand. Through the use of icons however, people can use the “mask” of the icon as a way to more fully attempt grasp the concept of God.