So u really like him,but I really am confused about how the iconoclast thing affected his reign as a whole in your eyes.Is he a heretic?also,who’s the better emperor Leo iii or Basil I
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as a Protestant myself, while I disagree very heavily with the idea of venerating saints end the stuff around it, I don't consider myself an Iconoclast. I know plenty who probably would, but I don't think that the icons needed to be systematically eradicated, just not venerated.
Same thing here. I theologically disagree with the specific veneration of saints and icons, but there's no need to go and smash the lot.
Yeah when I read about stuff like during the english reformation about how they would enter monasteries and smash all of the icons I'm just like, why? These aren't depictions of false gods or demons that are actively being worshipped or something. Once we've demythologized them, why can't we have the artistic value?
Exactly. There's nothing wrong with the actual artistic depiction in and of itself (from a certain theological pov), just how the art itself is used.
And of course, there's the obvious thing where people should (generally) be allowed to practice whatever beliefs/traditions they follow regardless of how you yourself feel about them.
I'm absolutely, staunchly opposed to the concept of holy relics but I think it's awful to read about how the Crusaders looted, melted down, or sold so many of them during 1204 as those items meant something immensely deep to the Romans, even if they would have meant nothing to myself.
And then the Romans/Franks sold the rest of em to families like the Capetians for money