Volcanoes and Heresies: Historiographical Perspectives on the Byzantine Iconoclastic Controversy

Abstract

"Ever since the dawn of history, when man first became a religious animal and almost simultaneously,give or take a millennium or two,made his first clumsy attempts at adorning the walls of his cave, he has had to face one fundamental question: is art the ally of religion, or its most insidious enemy?"¹ This question, precisely posed by historian John Julius Norwich in his trilogy on the Byzantine Empire, came to the fore in the seventh and eighth centuries during the Byzantine iconoclastic² controversy: Are icons the friend or foe of Christianity?