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The 2008 Fall Supper Seminars

The Art of Prayer

Responding to Icons

as Christian Theology

"The Transfiguration of our Lord" icon painted by the Pachomian monks of Mount Athos, Greece, in St. George's Greek Orthodox Church, Bond Street, Toronto.

Photo by Peter Richardson.

Seminar Leader

Prof. Richard Schneider
Adjunct Professor, Trinity College (U of T)

Professor Emeritus, York University

Icons--once thought of as a particular feature unique to Orthodox Christian worship--have   today become widespread in Christian homes and places of worship, including many Protestant churches. It seems that Christians of numerous confessions are discovering the power and the attraction of icons.  However, all too often (including for many Orthodox believers) the "attraction" really stems from surface features such as artistic beauty or the skill of execution.

This series of lectures--with  many illustrations from all periods and styles of icon painting-- will show that icons are created to communicate the truths and theology of basic Christian faith, using a language which is accessible and readable by any believer with a solid knowledge of Scripture.

Thus, as expressions of the truth of Scripture, icons are the common faith-heritage of all Gospel-grounded Christians, and indeed are both useful and powerful aids to anyone's prayer; but in their deepest meaning, they open up the full riches of the Orthodox Christian Tradition to any who make the effort to learn what it is.  This series of lectures will introduce us to this possibility.

Sessions begin with supper starting at 5 pm

Presentations from 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The "eyes of the body": learning to see icons as texts 

This lecture will explore the fundamental notion of "icon" as "image," and hence as a theological statement rather than a special kind of object.  We will also explore the ‘basic vocabulary’ of the language of iconographic depiction.

Wednesday, October  22,  2008

The "eyes of the mind":  the rhetoric of icons

Tonight, we will take a more complex and nuanced look at how iconography is designed and is “read”, and how it is constructed to offer a Christological reading of Scripture, even when its subject is a saint or an event.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Iconography in Liturgical Space: decorating the walls and enacting prayer inside them

Tonight’s discussion will explore the large-scale “programs” of many icons in churches.  As we do so, we will reflect upon the dynamic relationship between the program and the liturgy, and the ways that the ministers and laity become a part of the total iconographic message.  How should icons be “read” through liturgical celebration and prayer?

Wednesday, November  5, 2008

The "eyes of the heart":  the deep theological reading of iconography

Our final lecture will reflect upon how icons reflect and bring into coherent order the doctrinal truth of the church, and the doctrinal truth of icons themselves.  The lecture will explore how the patristic writers can be used as an aid in reading iconography as incarnational theology.

Professor Richard Schneider

Richard Schneider is the Visiting Professor of Orthodox Iconology, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary (N.Y.); Professor Emeritus of Church History, York University; Adjunct Professor and Coordinator of the Programme in Orthodox and Eastern Christian Studies, Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College (U of T); and Visiting Professor of Eastern Christian Studies, St. Paul’s University (Ottawa). 

He was the first Orthodox president of the Canadian Council of Churches (2003-2006); was on the Faith and Witness Commission and Biotechnology Reference Group; and was an Archdiocese of Canada lay representative on the Metropolitan Council of the Orthodox Church in America. 

Professor Schneider has given many spiritual retreats and theological lectures about iconography and iconology to a wide variety of Christian groups:  Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Christian Reformed.  He has also made presentations to the American Academy of Liturgists and Orientale Lumen.