25 July 2026

At various times in its history, the Church has taken a dislike to religious art and art of any form within the worship space. Hence the two great iconoclasms in the eighth century Orthodox Church and in the sixteenth century Reformation.

Objections to religious art all stem from the prohibition enshrined in the Ten Commandments. The first four are about God and the second reads, ‘You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.’

The commandment has encouraged people to think that they shouldn’t make any representation of God nor Jesus but the point of the commandment is not to prohibit a celebration of God and his works in art but the displacement of God by works of art!