Divine Magician by Peter Rollins

Author:Peter Rollins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Books

The Idol and the Icon

Theologically speaking, one might say that the Turn and the Prestige testified to within Christianity signal the disappearance of the idol and the appearance of the icon. The idol is simply a theological term for the imaginary thing we believe will make us whole, while the icon is a way of holding something that draws us into an experience of wonder and awe. In contrast to an idol, which eternally stands outside our world, an icon is in our world.

While the idol is always at a distance, the icon is present.

Yet the icon does not abolish distance, it rather relocates it. To treat someone or something as an icon is to experience a type of force field that causes our desire to “revolve,” not quite hitting its target, yet remaining close.

When someone is an icon for us, his very presence is experienced as a mystery. Whereas, in the previous diagrams, there was a bar separating a person from his idol, in the diagram below this bar is situated within the other. For in the icon, there is still something that resists being known, but this is not because we are separated from it. Rather, the unfathomable mystery lies within the icon itself. The icon is with us and yet there is something about it that is yet to arrive. It is experienced as having a depth and wonder that is not closed down in its presence, but rather opened up and intensified in it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.