[metmom]

And what exactly is the point of making statues in the first place?

Especially statues of people who you don’t even know what they looked like?

And why put them in churches and place candles to burn in front of them?

[Quix]

And what exactly is the point of making statues in the first place?

Especially statues of people who you don’t even know what they looked like?

And why put them in churches and place candles to burn in front of them?

---

INDEED TO THE SUPREME DEGREE.

[Natural Law]

"And what exactly is the point of making statues in the first place? Especially statues of people who you don’t even know what they looked like? And why put them in churches and place candles to burn in front of them?"

Through out the entire 2000 years of Christianity the vast majority of of Christians were illiterate and impoverished. Imagery and tangible mnemonic have been crucial in educating and expressing worship. Artwork, icons, statues, candles, music, architecture and rosaries have all played a role. It was only with the the advent of the so-called "Reformers" that Christianity became so joyless, sterile, colorless, and humorless.

[Cronos]

Good question -- and one that led to the iconoclasm debate in 730-787 in Byzantium. Sometime between 726-730, the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian began the iconoclast campaign. He ordered the removal of an image of Jesus prominently placed over the Chalke gate, the ceremonial entrance to the Great Palace of Constantinople, and its replacement with a cross.

Empress Irene, mother of Constantine VI decided that an ecumenical council needed to be held to once and for all address the issue of Iconoclasm and directed this request to Pope Hadrian I (772-795) in Rome. He announced his agreement and caused one to convene on 1 August 786 in the presence of the Emperor and Empress.

The council declared:

we declare that we defend free from any innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us. One of these is the production of representational art; this is quite in harmony with the history of the spread of the gospel, as it provides confirmation that the becoming man of the Word of God was real and not just imaginary, and as it brings us a similar benefit. For, things that mutually illustrate one another undoubtedly possess one another's message. ... we decree with full precision and care that, like the figure of the honoured and life-giving cross, the revered and holy images, whether painted or made of mosaic or of other suitable material, are to be exposed in the holy churches of God, on sacred instruments and vestments, on walls and panels, in houses and by public ways; these are the images of our Lord, God and saviour, Jesus Christ, and of our Lady without blemish, the holy God-bearer, and of the revered angels and of any of the saintly holy men. The more frequently they are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration. Certainly this is not the full adoration in accordance with our faith, which is properly paid only to the divine nature, but it resembles that given to the figure of the honoured and life-giving cross, and also to the holy books of the gospels and to other sacred cult object

The ones against iconoclasm argued that:
1. Assertion that the biblical commandment forbidding images of God had been superseded by the incarnation of Jesus, who, being the second person of the Trinity, is God incarnate in visible matter. Therefore, they were not depicting the invisible God, but God as He appeared in the flesh
2. idols depicted persons without substance or reality while icons depicted real persons. Essentially the argument was "all religious images not of our faith are idols; all images of our faith are icons to be venerated." This was considered comparable to the Old Testament practice of only offering burnt sacrifices to God, and not to any other gods
3. Moses had been instructed by God according to Exodus 25:18-22 to make golden statues of cherubim angels on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, and according to Exodus 26:31 God instructed Moses to embroider the curtain which separated the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle with cherubim