Death And Orthodox Iconography
In the Orthodox Church, iconography holds a central and important place, both visually and theologically. Icons are not merely decorations or pictorial teaching aids. They do serve these purposes, but their fundamental reason for being is to bear witness, in an artistic manner, to the Church’s beliefs. They are a reflection of the life in Christ as lived in the Church. We should expect, therefore, to receive from iconography that which is witnessed to and preached by other means, such as Scripture, liturgical texts, dogmatic statements, and the writings of the Fathers.
