The Blend Of Greek Culture And Christian Culture

Icon was crucial in Byzantium; it reflected the integration of Christian and Greek cultures. Icon won its legality permanently in the Orthodoxy Church in843. This meant the church accepted Greek elements in the icon. Greek elements in icon art represented the following two aspects. On the one hand, a certain number of themes or scenes were borrowed from the Greek mythology, on the other, icon art borrowed some strategies such as illusionism and certain methods of emotional expressionism from Greek art.It is important to keep in mind that the shape of the icon was not accomplished in an action, nor achieved smoothly. In4-5th C, the Church attracted a large number of new followers since Christianity won the status of state sponsored religion in the Roman Empire. For educational purposes, the church thought highly of religious art and the form of icon thusly transferred from symbols to figures. It absorbed many art elements in the Roman Empire, for which Syrian and Greek art were the two main sources. The Church also took the icon's function as Christianization of the pagan world so it could lead the rest of the world into "the kingdom of God".In6-7th C, Christianity became increasingly mature and began to remove or restrict the pagan elements in icon art. The Quinisext council held in this period formulated the teachings regarding religious images, especially the canons78,82and100containing the images of the cross?flesh and lamb, and "the exciting shameful pleasure". The Church used icons to draw a clear connection between its mission of "salvation" and the doctrine of "incarnation". In order to confute heresies, the Church considered the pagan elements (including Greek elements) in icon art as "immaturity". They even became a negative force because they reduced the principal importance and role of the direct image.In8-9th C, iconoclasts questioned the legality of icons because of its overuse on the Christianization process. In addition, the influence of Islamic rulers forbidding idols within their conquered Byzantine lands and the Christian heresy of Docetic tendency made things worse. This combined with political economic and military factors led to the inception of the iconoclastic controversy. Icon defenders eventually won out, and Greek culture was preserved and adapted in the preservation and continuation of icon art.We can see through the development of icon in330-850that how the integration of Christian and Greek cultures was going on. The influencing factors included political, economic and religious. Religious factors were most prominent, which defined the way Christianity tried to adapt itself in the Byzantine world. Secondly the development of Byzantine mass culture and the efforts of the elites to integrate the society and culture played an important role. Moreover other cultures besides the two main cultures were involved into and motivated this process.