God “adorns himself in magnificence and
clothes himself with beauty.” Man stands amazed and contemplates the glory
whose light causes a hymn of praise to burst forth from the heart of every
creature. The Testamentum Domini gives us the following prayer: “Let them be
filled with the Holy Spirit…so they can sing a doxology and give you praise and
glory forever.” An icon is the same kind of doxology but in a different form.
It radiates joy and sings the glory of God in its own way. True beauty does not
need proof. The icon does not prove anything; it simply lets true beauty shine
forth. In itself, the icon is shining proof of God’s existence, according to a
“kalokagathic” argument.
Paul Evdokimov in The Art of the Icon
“Kalokagathic”
– what a wonderful word! It’s is a Greek coinage, combining the word for
beautiful(kalos) and the word for good (agathos). To see an icon is so very far
removed from viewing an art object. First off, an icon is never an object.
Faces in an icon are never in profile, but look at us face to face. To rightly
see an icon is to see it in relationship, that is, to see it personally. And
the person whom we see is not the wood and paint, but the one whom the image on
the wood and paint represents. It is this encounter that makes it possible to
speak of an iconographic proof of the existence of God. I know there is a God
because I have seen His image.
In the
most perfect sense of this understanding, Christ is the proof of the Father’s
existence, because He is the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). Thus
Christ is the visible of the invisible. “If you have seen me, you have seen the
Father,” (John 14:9).
It is
also true that man is created in the image and likeness of God – though only in
Christ, the perfect man (and perfect God), is the image and likeness truly
realized. But Christ Himself extends the image – gathering into Himself, “the
least of these my brethren” (Matthew 25:40). Thus every human being offers the
opportunity of an encounter with God – if we have the eyes to see. Every human
being is proof, poor though it may be, of the existence of God.
Pavel
Florensky in his wonderful book Iconostasis, says that “Rublev’s icon of the
Holy Trinity exists, therefore God exists.” The first time I read the statement
I was brought up short. It took time to see what he meant and to see that it
was true. A couple of years later one of my daughters was visiting Moscow. She
sent a postcard say, “I have seen Rublev’s Trinity. It’s true.” What a
marvelous witness!
Source: https://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/the-icon-as-the-proof-of-gods-existence/
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