"Elegantly designed and replete with full-color illustrations (many photographs by the author), <i>From Idols to Icons</i>…will ignite scholarly dialogue beyond traditional disciplinary categories and methodologies into the foreseeable future."
CHOICE
"This richly illustrated and subtly argued account…commends itself, and the author’s commitment to, and, indeed, affection for, her subject illuminates the text as it does the images."
Reading Religion
"The book stands out for its clarity and for providing a very useful and thought-provoking synthesis on much debated topics."
The Catholic Historical Review
"In this fine book, art historian and scholar of early Christianity Robin M. Jensen explores, in eight richly illustrated chapters, the development of Christian sacral art as well as learned discourse about it, over the course of the first six centuries of the churches."<br />
The Thomist
"Jensen expertly uses images and tests to question traditional understandings of Christians' attitudes toward depictions of the Divine and illuminates the complexity of the intertwined issues of the art, idolatry, and violence justified by both polytheists and Christians."
Anglican and Episcopal History
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Early Christian Condemnation of Idols
2. Aniconism: In Defense of the Invisible God
3. Epiphanies: Encountering the Visible God
4. Early Christian Pictorial Art: From Sacred Narratives to Holy Portraits
5. Holy Portraits: Controversies and Commendation
6. The True Likeness
7. Miraculous and Mediating Portraits
8. Materiality, Visuality, and Spiritual Insight
Epilogue: The Idols’ Last Stand
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
General Index
Index of Sources
“This book is set to be a standard work in Christian art history, theological aesthetics, and the cultural history of late antiquity. A rarity in the field, Jensen's account is attentive to both the material culture that is early Christian art and the theological lenses through which it was and is understood. A masterful achievement." —Christopher Beeley, Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of Theology, Duke University