The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm

#160;Philosophers and theologians have long engaged in intense debate and introspection over the representation of the deity, its possibilities and its proscriptions. The Forbidden Image traces the dual strains of “iconophilia” and iconoclasm, the privileging and prohibition of religious images, over a span of two and a half millennia in the West.Alain Besançon’s work begins with a comprehensive examination of the status of the image in Greek, Judaic, Islamic, and Christian thought. The author then addresses arguments regarding the moral authority of the image in European Christianity from the medieval through the early modern periods. Besançon completes The Forbidden Image with an examination of how iconophilia and iconoclasm have been debated in the modern period.“Even the reader who has heard something of the Byzantine quarrels about images and their theological background will be surprised by a learned and convincing interpretation of the works of Mondrian, Kandinsky, and Malevich in terms of religiously inspired iconoclasm. . . . This is an immensely rich and powerful masterpiece.”—Leszek Kolakowski, Times Literary Supplement 

PDF) The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm (review)

Saint and Sinner: The Legacies of Two Byzantine Empresses – Renaissance Reframed

PDF] The Chora parekklesion as a space of becoming

A Century of Horrors, Book by Alain Besancon, Ralph Hancock, Official Publisher Page

The Power of Iconic Memory: Iconoclasm as a Mental Marker

Machines in the Garden

Traditional Palestinian Embroidery and Jewelry by Abed Al-Samith Abu Omar - 1986

The Forbidden Image by Alain Besancon

Some thoughts on iconoclasm from antiquity to the current moment - Document - Gale Academic OneFile

The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm (9780226044132): Alain Besançon and Jane Marie Todd - BiblioVault

Opinion We Need a Monument to the Unknown America - The New York Times