So for those who follow online discussions and battles and polemics, there has been a recent

polemic about icons. You know, some people have put out some videos criticizing the orthodox

use of icons. And so many people have asked me to respond, and in some ways I guess I will, but I'm not going to

respond in the same manner. I'm not a scholar, and I'm not a big fan of the scholarly approach

and trying to justify this or that from proof text and to justify the accuracy or, you know, the falseness

of this or that source or this or that text. You know, I have nothing against that. It's fine.

And in some ways, I'll leave other people to do that. But I do think that there is a deeper issue

that gets ignored when we are looking at the question in that way.

And the deeper question is something like the very thrust of revelation itself, the very way in which God is redeeming the world in the biblical story and you could say in the universal story.

And so that is the way that I want to look at it.

To kind of look at things, maybe back up a little and ask questions that people as they

get into the details of things seem to not be asking.

And so that's the way we're going to look at it.

This is Jonathan Peugeot.

Welcome to the symbolic world.

Now, of course, the first thing to start with is to start with the text, right? The prescription,

which is that in the Ten Commandments, but not just in the Ten Commandments, obviously in several

other places, there is a prescription about making images. That prescription is, let's say,

the root of it could be said to be in the Ten Commandments. All the other descriptions of it are like, let's say the root of it could be said to be in the TED commandments. All the other

descriptions of it are like, let's say, exemplifications or detailed version of the law that

you will not make graven images, you will not bow down and worship them, you will not

make images of false gods, and you will not bow down before them. You won't worship the images of false

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