Idol worship: Christians venerate statues of Christ and/or the Virgin Mary

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Idolatry

The subject of idolatry was raised as a religious polemic, a

monotheistic appraisal of the polytheism. Idolatry is concerned with

the rather ubiquitous belief among indigenous cultures that images of

gods can become a repository of divine power, one development of

animism, in which all of nature was imbued with supernatural forces.

The sympathetic magic of images depended upon the image being a

proper representation of the god, and also being installed through a

special invocatory ceremony. Although the early Judaic commandment

not to worship graven images implied a new separate form of worship,

the statement that the Jewish god was " a jealous god " implied that

Pagan images possessed some power but that it would be of rival

demonic gods as distinct from the monotheism of Moses.

 

The belief in the power of images is also related to the designation

of special sacred places—particularly striking natural locations or

buildings such as tabernacles, synagogues, and churches where the

presence of God might be enhanced. The very structure of churches and

cathedrals utilized architecture to reinforce this belief, while

rituals created a mental and emotional structure to invoke divine

presence. Allied to the use of rituals are the geometrical shapes of

mandalas, used as an aid in meditation.

 

In the history of Christianity, the Judaic commandment prohibiting

images, in the face of their almost universal appeal, caused great

controversies in relation to the use of icons (flat stylized picture

of the saints), as opposed to statues of Christ and/or the Virgin

Mary in churches, one major element in the division of Roman

Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. The sixteenth-century

Protestant reformers banned images in their churches, and only in

recent decades have they returned, but only as decorative art.

 

The Catholic view is that such representations are not actually

worshiped, but are simply an aid for intercession with divine power,

that it is a more intangible god that is worshiped. However, the

concept of God as a father figure, and the tangible representations

of Jesus Christ merely remove imagery to a mental and spiritual

level, for which an image is a support.

 

Moreover, in some countries, the " veneration " of images closely

approaches actual " worship, " as for example, the famous " Child of

Prague " image of the Carmelites Church of Our Lady of Victories in

the former Czechoslovakia (a statue actually brought from Spain in

the sixteenth century). This statue has become known in many

countries and venerated by thousands of people, in the belief that it

can render favors on those who pray to it. Interestingly enough, the

robes of this image are changed regularly in accordance with the

ecclesiastical calendar. This custom of dressing images is also

widely practiced at the present day temples through India, indicating

that customs and beliefs relating to images are common to many

traditions.

 

Worship associated with ancient pagan Mother Goddesses has much in

common with Christian adoration of the Virgin Mary. Some comparative

religionists would go so far as to claim that these are but different

forms of one primal maternal force in nature. Similarly the concept

of a divine savior, born of a virgin and crucified for the atonement

of human sin, is also found in some Pagan religions.

 

The belief that images might become actual centers of divine power is

still common in different religions. In Hindu temples, images are

installed with special ceremonies to invoke divinity, and

subsequently treated as living entities. The installation ceremonies

mark an important point in the opening of a temple for public

worship. In Swaminarayan temples, for example, the installation of an

image requires a ritual in which, at the high point, a mirror is held

in front of the deity's eyes, so that the power may not blind

observers; the mirror is said to be cracked by this force.

 

In Roman Catholicism, miracles continue to be associated with statues

of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Such miracles involve statues that

move, weep, or shed blood. In the phenomenon of stigmata, an

intensely devout individual or a saint may become, in effect, a

living statue upon which the wounds of Christ are physically

reproduced—the marks of scourging, wounds on the shoulder and side,

the bruising of wrist, and bleeding hands. Apparitions of the Virgin

Mary are a related phenomenon in which a holy figure does not require

the material support of an image for manifestation but appears with

independent life.

 

Even in modern times, there are claims of moving statues of the

Virgin Mary, notably at the village of Ballinspittle, in Ireland.

 

Idoltary

http://www.answers.com/topic/idolatry

 

Sources:

 

Abbott, John. The Keys of Power: A Study of Indian Ritual and Belief.

London: Methuen, 1932. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University

Books, 1974.

 

Bevan, Edwyn Robert. Holy Images; An Inquiry Into Idolatry and Image—

Worship in Ancient Paganism and in Christianity. London: George

Allen, 1940.

 

Breasted, J. H. Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. London: Hodder

& Stoughton, 1912.

 

Graves, Kersey. The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors. Boston, Mass.,

1875. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1971.

 

Hastings, James, ed. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. 12 vols.

Edinburgh: James Clark, 1908.

 

Tylor, E. B. Primitive Culture. 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1871.