Council · 787 · 24 September

Second Council of Nicaea

Should Christians use images of Jesus and the saints in worship, or are they idols? Emperors had ordered icons destroyed, while their defenders said an image can point beyond itself to the person it depicts. Nicaea II defended the use of holy images while making an important distinction: Christians may honour an icon, but worship belongs to God alone. Its reasoning was simple: because God truly became visible in Jesus, images can bear witness to him.

Miniature from the Menologion of Basil depicting the restoration of icons. — Nicaea II defended holy images on incarnational grounds. via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

At a glance

Type: Council
Date remembered: 24 September, AD 787
What kind of event is this?: A council or settlement that changed the church's public teaching, discipline, or historical direction.
Key line: An image may be honoured, but worship belongs to God alone.

Highlights

Icons were restored.
Honouring an image was distinguished from worshipping God.
John of Damascus's arguments were vindicated.
It became the last council accepted by both East and West.

How it happened

What happened

The council restored the veneration of icons after decades of iconoclast policy in the Byzantine empire.

The argument

Are icons idolatry, or can images of Christ and the saints be venerated without worshipping matter?

What changed

The council distinguished veneration from worship and defended images on incarnational grounds.

Why it matters

If God truly became visible in Christ, the material world can bear witness to God without becoming an idol.

Aftermath

Iconoclasm returned for a time, but Nicaea II became the decisive council for icon veneration.

People in the story

John of Damascusc. 675 – c. 749Greek monk at Mar Saba and the traditional last of the Greek Fathers. Author of the Fount of Knowledge (including Dialectica, On Heresies, and De Fide Orthodoxa) — the great synthesis of Greek patristic theology. Wrote three Orations Against Those Who Attack the Holy Images defending icons during the iconoclast controversy.