The "Ikonography" of Stereotypes

One thing that separates Anglicans from Anglican Catholics (and also our Oecumenical partners) is that we accept the doctrine of the Second Council of Nicaea being the Seventh Oecumenical Council. This is the council which demonstrates that there is a world of difference between ikons and idols.

We're actually more used to ikons than we think. I tend to use the Greek spelling with a k, but the majority of people use a c to produce icons. I certainly remember the first time I opened Windows 3 and saw the icons there. When you clicked on them, the programme opened up and (usually) worked. The presence of the icon spoke about the presence of the programme that it represented. The same is true in the Church: an ikon of Christ speaks of the presence of Christ. We bow before the ikon because we bow before Christ. It's the same principle with photographs - witness the lovesick boy kiss a cherished photograph of his new girlfriend.

It seems clear to me that ikonography is a natural part of human existence. From our troglodyte beginnings, we have always sought to represent what we see in our dwellings. These are representations of our physical reality and we use them to speak of our experience of the world. The pictures speak more of what they represent than we can describe. We always have to go beyond what we see in order to find the depth of reality.

For the Christian, it is God who determines reality and sustains it, thus to see the human Jesus is to see the Divine Person of the Trinity. This is not idolatry because it is not a created thing that we worship: we adore Him who is begotten, not created, His Father and the One who proceeds from the Father in Eternity and is breathed by the Son in Time.

However, Society is not Christian. Yet still it possesses this nature to create "ikons" to point to deeper realities which its materialist and secular attitudes can grasp better. This tends to hark back to good, old-fashioned Platonism. We have the idea of what it means to be male, female, rich, poor, strong, weak, old, young, et c. From these, we tend to construct the stereotypes. We have the stereotypical man based upon his physical attributes. He is the one who goes out to work, drinks beer, plays foot-ball, doesn't readily show his emotions, et c. We have the little girl in pink, the little boy in blue, dresses and flowers for Sally, trucks and toy guns for Jim.

The trouble is that often these stereotypes point to images of a man and a woman who aren't real. If a boy wants to wear pink and play with a doll, it is immediately assumed that there is something wrong with him. He doesn't fit Society's ikon of Man. He must therefore be Woman and Society will encourage him to transition into whatever stereotype suits him best. There is even the new ikon of Non-Sexed. Even Iconoclast has an ikon in the generations of stereotype. These stereotypes arise from Society's expectations of what we should be. Yet, these stereotypes exist only to diminish our humanity.

The moment we equate our actions with our being, we enter this diminution of ourselves and enslave ourselves to the two-dimensional nature that a secular humanity offers. The man who sleeps with another man is gay: action becomes essence. If this is true, then the man who kills another is a murderer and can never escape that identity. There can be no repentance or salvation if what we do becomes what we are. Thus, by accepting the stereotypes and forcing others to accept stereotypes, we find ourselves perpetuating nothingness and thus building the corridors of Hell itself.

The Catholic Faith takes things very differently. In the eyes of the Church, there is no such thing as "being gay" - it is not a thing that speaks to our reality, but to a feature that need not be permanent. We sin and are justly called "sinner" but God does not allow this to become what we are - only we allow it to become what we are. In this sense, we have the opportunity to participate in our own creation by detaching ourselves from the stereotypes that Society tries to impress upon us. Catholic Christians are the true ikonoclasts because we seek to break the fake ikons which point to non-being and find ourselves stripped of all but ourselves in our poor purity to which God then adds substance. In confessing our sins, we break the ikons of stereotype and are thus freed to gaze upon human beings who are themselves ikons of God. St Epiphanius of Salamis would have that while Man is the ikon of Christ, Woman is the ikon of the Holy Ghost and also the Church.

Ironically, this freedom is rejected by Society as enslavement and brainwashing. They see the desire to resist the temptations that beset us as not being true to ourselves. They see our sadness at being flawed and fallen as being unnecessary tears when we should be rejoicing. They see our urging to see the truth as being blasphemous because the truth is already visible. Yet, the more we allow this false ikonography into the Church, the more we will struggle to keep its unity together. As Christians, our duty is to seek God and His Righteousness first. We are to use the ikons in order to break down stereotypes. We must see our freedom as being ourselves in God not being free from constraint to pursue our own stereotype. It is submission to the Catholic Faith as revealed by God to the Church that is more freeing than this World will ever understand.

This World is flatter than the piece of paper on which its stereotypes are drawn: our reality in God is more real than a thousand new dimensions opening up at every point of our being.