Depending on what Christian tradition one finds oneself in, the question of Christian art is a difficult and delicate topic. Are we permitted to have Christian art? Can we represent Jesus? What disposition should we have towards artistic representations of Jesus, the apostles, or Christian saints? Does any of this break the Second Commandment? How and why did the Christian church eventually permit the use, and sometimes veneration, of Christian art? This book, From Idols to Icons: The Emergence of Christian Devotional Images in Late Antiquity by Robin M. Jensen seeks to answer that last question. Jensen is a seasoned and respected scholar of early Christian art and one could not find a more able guide.

Christians, Jensen shows in chapter four, most likely had artistic representations of some kind even as far back as the first century, only avoiding depictions of the Greco-Roman gods. When Christians began developing their own “material culture” by the third century, the artwork they commissioned was primarily narratival–depicting scenes from biblical stories–or symbolic. It was in the late fourth and early fifth centuries that the shift from narrative and symbol to portraits began to take place. With this shift also came, as explored in chapter five, debates about how to relate to such portraits of Christ or the saints. Were they vehicles facilitating a “face-to-face” encounters with the subject portrayed? By the fifth and sixth centuries, Christians felt they could honor such holy portraits while simultaneously distinguishing them from the person they represented. These debates naturally led to questions of how such connections between the subject and the portrait were possible (chapter six). Did it depend on the likeness between the subject and the portrait? Ultimately, the early Christians answered in the negative. As an aside, this chapter was the most interesting to me as she discusses and illustrates both the continuity and polymorphic representations of Christ in Christian art. Chapter seven rounds out the historical narrative of Jensen’s book by looking at the reported miracles associated with “holy portraits.”

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this book is its brevity (excluding endnotes, the book is only 169 pages). Profound brevity is the mark of a true expert, and Jensen shows herself as such. The book is filled with many fascinating examples of early Christian art that Jensen expertly weaves into her narrative. Coming in at a list price is $65 (USD), which may be cost-prohibitive for some, one hopes a cheaper paperback volume will make this excellent work more widely available.

Reviewed by Ryan Clevenger

Publisher’s page: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/from-idols-to-icons/hardcover

This essay will examine some of the more prominent biblical imagery associated with the incorporeal and invisible Holy Spirit. The biblical imagery employed is to be understood from a metaphorical symbolic perspective. These metaphorical symbols are not simple flat literal empirical descriptions of the Spirit but are powerful metaphorical symbols, which open up the mysterious and hidden work of the Spirit to us. From this perspective, these symbols help us apprehend and experience the invisible and ontological otherness of God

The biblical images of the Holy Spirit are tangible means that convey the character and activity of the Holy Spirit to us. These images enable us to experientially know the personal presence and power of the invisible and incorporeal Living God. These scriptural symbols testify to the ways in which the people of God have experienced the Holy Spirit throughout history. The invisible Spirit communicates to us by means of our human senses. We hear and feel the Spirit of God, just as they did! God then condescends to us through human avenues so that we can experience God. The symbols provide us with analogies so that we can understand the working of God. This is a redemptive knowledge of God. It is God who reveals Himself to us.

The biblical symbols enable us to relationally and experientially understand the mysterious work of the Spirit. The metaphorical symbols convey the presence of the Spirit in such a way as those who encounter the symbol experience the reality of the Spirit. The Lord has chosen these particular symbols as a way for us to experientially recognize the presence of God in our lives.

Scripture, then, provides us with an authoritative narrative to validate our experiences. If our experience does not line up with Scripture then we need to prayerfully reconsider the authenticity of our experience. The Spirit who breathed upon the writers of the Bible is still breathing upon the people of God. We should expect God to encounter us and even more so as we the people of God long for God’s Spirit to be poured out afresh upon us!