A few scattered thoughts, as I have not taken the time to really think them through - yet:
I’ve read, in sundry places, that the destruction of idols is a necessary thing for true spirituality and worship of the One True God.
In a way, that saddens me: in a way. I’ve found over the years that of the two 'Ways" - via negativa or via positiva, also known as the Way of the Destruction of Images and the Way of the Affirmation of Images (and there are other ways of stating it), I have always gravitated to the Affirmation end of the scale.
Question for self: Difference between Image and Idol? Eastern Orthodoxy and the Icon?
For some thinkers, the world by necessity is dis-enchanted by the coming of the true God. All lesser gods, all other claims to ultimate concern must be banished. I’ve always felt that the world needs to be re-enchanted. I suppose that is the main reason I read a lot of fantasy, most often by a Christian author who is familiar with the medieval world-view. “The Discarded Image” by C.S. Lewis, which I read a number of years ago, revealed to me the richness of the Roman and medieval imagination in peopling the earth with a wide and fascinating number of spirits and sprites and longevae and a myriad other beings.
I relate to that, a lot. How comforting for people who were taught the High God was so high, so remote, so unapproachable, to have, say, a god of the hearth; a god of the road outside one’s home; a goddess of the orchard, of the woods, of the streams, of the bedroom, of the bath, of the table.
And I think that each of those ‘gods’ were part of a myth that carried strong emotional resonance - folks felt that the hearth should be comforting, as it was looked over by a god or goddess; and that the table should be a place of comfort and togetherness and hospitality for the same reason. And that in some way each of the ‘gods’ was an Icon, not an image, of the High God, so could be related to emotionally with safety. A walk in the woods, jumping over a stream, hearing the thunder, reaping a harvest - all part of an enchanted world.
I think Lewis stated somewhere in that book that sure, that old world-view is not true, but that he knew it to be fuller, richer, more holistic than ‘our’ world.
I was joking with a friend some time ago, that I interpret life through the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, (though really I wasn’t joking, just fishing for a response) and he looked at me seriously and said he fully understood, but for him it was the Narnia Chronicles. Selah.
For me as well, at 65 yrs, I’m into Gnomes. Not stupid silly gnomes, but the real thing (!), like in the big Gnome book that came out 20 years or more ago, by Wil Huygen. I had a weather vane made for my wife one year, a gnome with a red peaked hat, pushing a garden cart - my wife is a great garden cart pusher - it looks great on top of the house and gets some comments. It’s one of our little household - what do I say? - it’s like a reminder of the metanarrative that is the Bagwill family - in the garden, caring for animals, we both love the giant Sequoia in the corner of the property, there’s an old cowboy-built barn that I have converted to a luthiery shop - I can imagine that the household gods of yore served much the same purpose. We entrust to the icon our story, and when we feel empty, the icon brings back the story and we once again feel in the stream of life.
Do you have such icons or images or household ‘gods’ ? Something that is an Affirmation of meaning, of soul, of story?
I’m just rambling here, folks, thanks for the indulgence.