The Worldview of an Iconographer

What is a worldview?  We all have one.  Our culture has a pervading worldview that changes with the times.  Having recently emerged from a postmodernist cultural viewpoint, we now experience the effects of pluralism, relativism, and syncretism in the world around us.

Our world view is a concept which we hold, both consciously and unconsciously  that determines our ethics, behavior, and makes up the nature of our ultimate reality.

As a Christian, our worldview is identified with the truths of  the Bible, Christ, the Trinity, and the Gospel- essentially, Christian theism.   The reason we choose Icons created before the seventeenth century as our models to create new Icons is because  Christian theism was the pervading worldview in the Western world until the advent of the Renaissance when Humanism began to emerge.  The worldview of the early Icons was one of a personal, triune God of the Bible, the universe was God’s creation and human beings were God’s special creation, created in His Image.

“During the period from the early Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century, very few challenged the existence of God…….Christianity had so penetrated the Western world that whether or not people believed in Christ or acted as Christians should, they all lived in a context of ideas influenced and informed by the Christian faith.” The Universe Next Door, James Sire

As Iconographers, we want to first understand the world and people around us, and then genuinely communicate God’s reality, His Truth,  to our world through the practice of Icon writing. We use the examples of the early Icons as our models to help us portray a worldview that we ourselves are not able to experience in our contemporary culture.

A worldview is a commitment , a fundamental orientation of the heart, that predisposes us to a particular reality. And that worldview provides the very foundation on which we live, work, play, and love others.

If it’s true that all of one’s thoughts and actions originate in the heart, our relationship to God becomes central to us as artists and Iconographers.  More important even, than whether one uses acrylic paint, egg tempera, or use a particular style of painting Icons.

The Christian worldview is the central defining perspective and it encompasses notions of wisdom, spirituality, emotion, desire, and will. So when we say that prayer is the first and most important part of Icon painting, it is also important to keep clear about this Christian worldview, and that it is different from the worldview of the culture around us.

Ideally, our Icons become a bridge that unites the Christian worldview with whatever worldview popular culture is experiencing.  It is only through our compassionate understanding with those people and institutions around us that our Icons can go out into the world and be the blessings they are meant to be.

“Mother Teresa of Calcutta used to say that “the money in your pocket is not yours, it belongs to God.” The same is true of all the gifts you have received. They have been given to you by the Holy Spirit to bring the world back to God. ”  Deacon Lawrence  

May God inspire each of you, may you hear His voice, and may your Icons truly be a blessing to the world you inhabit.

Christine

Christine Simoneau Hales

“If we want clarity about our own worldview, we must reflect and profoundly consider how we actually behave.”    “The Universe Next Door” by James Sires

 

 

 

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