Iconoclasm

In the year 726 C.E., the Byzantine emperor Leo III issued an edict declaring images to be idols, forbidden by Exodus, and ordering all such images in churches to be destroyed. Thus was set off the first wave of Byzantine iconoclasm, which ran its violent course until 787, when the underlying issues were temporarily resolved at the Second Council of Nicaea.

The eighth in the Oriental Institute Seminar Series, this volume contains papers that emerged from the seminar Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond, held at the Oriental Institute April 8-9, 2011.

Iconoclasm – the alteration, destruction, or displacement of icons – is usually considered taboo or profane. But, on occasion, the act of destroying the sacred unintentionally bestows iconic status on the desecrated object. Iconoclasm examines the reciprocity between the building and the breaking of images, paying special attention to the constructive power of destructive acts. Although iconoclasm carries with it inherently religious connotations, this volume examines the shattering of images beyond the spiritual and the sacred.