Interesting...

[Zacharias]

"anathema"
Definition: hate
Synonyms: abomination, bane, bugbear, detestation, enemy, hate, pariah
Antonyms: beloved, love, the blessed



At an early date the Church adopted the word anathema to signify the exclusion of a sinner from the society of the faithful; but the anathema was pronounced chiefly against heretics. All the councils, from the Council of Nicæa to that of the Vatican, have worded their dogmatic canons: "If any one says . . . let him be anathema".

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm



(1) If anyone shall not confess, according to the tradition of the Apostles and Fathers, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost one godhead, nature and substance, will and operation, virtue and dominion, kingdom and power in three subsistences, that is in their most glorious Persons, let him be anathema.

(2) If anyone does not confess that one of the Trinity was made flesh, let him be anathema.

(3) If anyone does not confess that theholy Virgin is truly the Mother of God, etc.

(4) If anyone does not confess one Christ both God and man, etc.

(5) If anyone does not confess that the flesh of the Lord is life-giving because it is the flesh of the Word of God, etc.

(6) If anyone does not confess two natures in Christ, etc.

(7) If anyone does not confess that Christ is seated with God the Father in body and soul, and so will come to judge, and that he will remain God forever without any grossness, etc.

(8) If anyone ventures to represent the divine image (karakthr) of the Word afterthe Incarnation with material colours, let him be anathema!

(9) If anyone ventures to represent in human figures, by means of material colours,by reason of the incarnation, the substance or person (ousia or hypostasis) of the Word, which cannot be depicted, and does not rather confess that even after the Incarnation he [i.e., the Word] cannot be depicted, let him be anathema!

(10) If anyone ventures to represent the hypostatic union of the two natures in a picture, and calls it Christ, and fires falsely represents a union of the two natures, etc.!

(11) If anyone separates the flesh united with the person of the Word from it, and endeavours to represent it separately in a picture, etc.!

(12) If anyone separates the one Christ into two persons, and endeavours to represent Him who was born of the Virgin separately, and thus accepts only a relative (sketikh) union of the natures, etc.

(13) If anyone represents in a picture the flesh deified by its union with the Word, and thus separates it from the Godhead, etc.

(14) If anyone endeavours to represent by material colours, God the Word as a mere man, who, although bearing the form of God, yet has assumed the form of a servant in his own person, and thus endeavours to separate him from his inseparable Godhead, so that he thereby introduces a quaternity into the Holy Trinity, etc.

(15) If anyone shall not confess the holy ever-virgin Mary, truly and properly the Mother of God, to be higher than every creature whether visible or invisible, anddoes not with sincere faith seek her intercessions as of one having confidence in her access to our God, since she bare him, etc.

(16) If anyone shall endeavour to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colours which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, etc.

(17) If anyone denies the profit of the invocation of Saints, etc.

(18) If anyone denies the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment, and the condign retribution to everyone, endless torment and endless bliss, etc.

(19) If anyone does not accept this our Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Synod, lethim be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from the seven holy Ecumenical Synods!


As taken from "Epitome of the Definition of the Iconoclastic Conciliabulum"
: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-14/Npnf2-14-163.htm#P10227_1935094

[Mysterium_Fidei]

Gr. anathema -- literally, placed on high, suspended, set aside

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm

[Zacharias]

Gr. anathema -- literally, placed on high, suspended, set aside

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm

At an early date the Church adopted the word anathema to signify the exclusion of a sinner from the society of the faithful; but the anathema was pronounced chiefly against heretics. All the councils, from the Council of Nicæa to that of the Vatican, have worded their dogmatic canons: "If any one says . . . let him be anathema".

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01455e.htm

[Fish and Bread]

What stuck out to me there is not the word anathema, but that the ecumenical councils are listed as seemingly prohibiting crucifixes and statues and images of Jesus. So, what's the deal? I have to be misinterpreting what I'm reading, right? Can anyone fill me in? :)

What council(s) are some of those points regarding images and the intercession of Mary supposedly taken from? Are these post-ecumenical Roman Catholic-only councils?

John

[Zacharias]

What stuck out to me there is not the word anathema, but that the ecumenical councils are listed as seemingly prohibiting crucifixes and statues and images of Jesus. So, what's the deal? I have to be misinterpreting what I'm reading, right? Can anyone fill me in? :)

What council(s) are some of those points regarding images and the intercession of Mary supposedly taken from? Are these post-ecumenical Roman Catholic-only councils?

John
"Material Colors", if I'm not mistaken, means material in appearance not spiritual.


I shall close this matter with the admirably learned and judicious words of Michaud.

"No doubt there had been abuses in connexion with the worship of images; but the Council of Nice never approved of these. No doubt, too, certain marks of veneration used in the East were not practised in Gaul; but the Council of Nice did not go into these particulars. It merely determined the principle, to wit, the lawfulness and moral necessity of honouring the holy images; and in doing this it did not in any degree innovate. Charlemagne ought to have known this, for, already in the sixth century Fortunatus, in his Poem on St. Martin, tells how in Gaul they lighted lamps before the images.6 The great point that Charlemagne made was that what was called in the West `adoration,' in the strict sense (that is to say the worship of Latria) should be rendered to none other than God; now this is exactly the doctrine of the Council of Nice. Charlemagne himself admits that the learned may venerate images, meaning thereby that the veneration is really addressed to the prototypes, but that such veneration is a source of scandal to the ignorant who in the image venerate7 nothing but the material image itself (Lib. III., cap. xvj.)."8
As taken from: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-14/Npnf2-14-171.htm#P10728_2065497


It's good to venerate images if you are venerating the person it depicts. However you may not venerate the material (wooden, stone, ect.) image itself.

[SeenAndUnseen]

So according to this, anyone who feels that asking the intercession of the Saints or the Blessed Virgin Mary is unnecessary should be "anathema." That is what astounds me most about RC ideas and pronouncements on matters: while they were well-intentioned in the outset (to confront heresies and quash movements within the Church that veered too far from the basic tenets of the faith), they certainly have led to a lot of discombobulated rubbish and doctrine-stacking in the present day. The system has become a perilous game of Theology Jenga, and the balance is increasingly less defensible when light is shed on historic writings and they appear to fall short, or no longer apply.