Idolatry

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IDOLATRY

IDOLATRY . The word idolatry is formed from two Greek words, eidōlon, "image," and latreia, "adoration." Etymologically, idolatry means "adoration of images." Authors have given idolatry and idol widely differing definitions thereby revealing the complexity of the problem. Eugène Goblet d'Alviella uses the term idol to mean images or statues "that are considered to be conscious and animate" and sees idolatry in the act of "regarding an image as a superhuman personality" (Goblet d'Alviella, 1911, p. 126). In a relatively recent article, J. Goetz (1962), trying to get a better grip on the problem, establishes, first, that in the wake of etymology idolatry "designates the adoration of images by emphasizing the specific nature of the cult surrounding the objects, a cult of adoration, which strictly speaking expresses a feeling of absolute dependence, especially through sacrifice." He then states that the terms idolatry and idol remain inaccurate, and that "the authors who have tackled the problem of idolatry most often defined the idol as an object in anthromorphic form, intended to represent a spirit, the object of worship." Finally, venturing onto the terrain of religious phenomenology, he risks a definition of idol: "any material object that receives a form of worship more or less structured," idolatry being this form of worship.

The concept of idolatry originated in a very specific historico-religious context: the monotheism of Israel. Consequently, an authentic approach to the concept must refer to the Hebrew scriptures. In his research on the prophetic reaction to pagan religious concepts, Christopher R. North presents two ideas taken directly from the prophets. First, "Idolatry is the worship of the creature instead of the Creator and, to make matters worse, the creature is made by man, who is himself a creature" (North, 1958, p. 158). He then states: "Idolatry is the worship of what in modern terms we should call process, the 'life-force,' the élan vital, or what we will, instead of the Creator who transcends and is in some sort external to creation" (ibid., p. 159). Finally, here is another, more recently formulated definition: "Idolatry may be defined as the worship of an idol (eidōlon, image, portrait) considered as a substitute for the divine" (M. Delahoutre, "Idolâtrie," Dictionnaire des religions, Paris, 1984).

This brief survey should help situate this article's discussion. The concept of idolatry originated in the application of the second commandment. It acquired definitive formulation in censure by the prophets of Israel of the pagan cults and their influence on the chosen people. This biblical heritage passed into the New Testament and early Christianity, blazing its way through the forest of pagan cults. The monotheism of Islam adopted this Judeo-Christian concept and made it one of the foundations of its beliefs and its faith.

Beginning with these notions formed with the help of the dogmatic thought as well as the polemic stance of the three great monotheisms, the historian of religions enlarges his vision of idolatry by studying this religious phenomenon through the behavior of homo religiosus in relation to the representation of divinity. However, this study becomes vast and includes other very important aspects: images for worship, symbolism in religions and cults, religious art, veneration of images, iconoclasm. The present study is limited to idolatry, which it will approach on two levels: On the one hand, the historico-religious fact that the three great monotheisms censured the worship of idols; and, on the other hand, the phenomenon of humankind's attitude of worship in the presence of a visible representation of divinity. The study of these two aspects is made with reference to the historical documentation left by the homo religiosus concerned.

Historical Semantics

In ancient Greek texts since Homer one rarely finds the word eidōlon. Formed from eidos (n.), "aspect, shape," the word eidōlon has diverse meanings: "phantom, undetermined form, image reflected in a mirror or in water." It also means an image formed in the human mind. Thus in the ancient Greek world, eidōlon did not have a religious meaning.

One must therefore turn to the biblical Greek world, where eidōlon is found in the Septuagint. Used 70 times in the protocanonical texts, it translates 16 different Hebrew words, as for example aven, vanity; elil, nothing; gillulim, excrement; pesel, carved statue; tselim, image. For these protocanonical texts the Vulgate uses idolum 112 times and simulacrum 32 times in order to translate 15 Hebrew words. Eidōlon also appears many times in the apocryphal writings. The Hebrew Bible uses 30 different nouns in order to talk about idols and mentions 44 pagan divinities. Thus eidōlon designates the false gods and does so with a scornful nuance, for they are vanity, lies, nothingness, vain images, molded metal, carved wood. It is therefore through choices made by Greek translators of the Bible that eidōlon acquired the religious sense of representing a pagan divinity considered to be a false god. Thus the Septuagint gave eidōlon a new pejorative and polemical meaning. (By extension, eidoleiōn means a temple in which idols are found.)

Eidōlon passed into the Greek New Testament. The word does not occur in the Gospels, but it appears elsewhere (Acts 7:41, 15:20; Rom. 2:22; 1 Cor. 8:4, 8:7, 10:9, 12:2; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Thes. 1:9; 1 Jn. 5:21; Rev. 9:20). The Vulgate sometimes translates it as idolum and sometimes as simulacrum. One passage (1 Cor. 7:10) has the word eidoleion, "temple of idols," which the Vulgate preserves, Latinizing it as idolium. The New Testament passages show that in the eyes of the compilers, the pagan gods have no substance (Gal. 4:8). Behind their worship hides the work of demons (1 Cor. 10:19).

The word eidōlon passed into patristic terminology. Its usage is common from the second century on. In the Epistle of Barnabas, the eidōla are the pagan gods to which the Hebrews turned in the desert. Justin Martyr (1 Apology 64.1) designates as an eidōlon a statue of Kore, who was considered to be the daughter of Zeus. In speaking of pagan gods, Clement of Alexandria made use of all the richness of Greek vocabulary of his time. Evidence of this can be found in chapter 4 of the Exhortation to the Heathen, devoted to statues of gods, agalmata. He calls them idols (4.53.1) and includes them among the demons (4.55.1), which are impure and base spirits. He invites his readers to approach these statues (agalmata ) in order to uncover the error that they conceal: "Their exterior clearly shows the mark of your demons' inner dispositions" (4.57.1). Later he reproaches the Greeks for having given themselves models of sensuality in these idols (4.61.1). Justin proclaims that Christ came to liberate people from the domination of idols (Dialogue with Trypho 113.6). These pagan gods are only phantoms that take possession of the human spirit and give the pagans the illusion of divine worship (Athenagoras, Libellus 23). These few samples, taken from the arsenal of the polemic of the apologists and the Greek fathers, show how the meaning of eidōlon expanded in the Greek world during the first centuries of the common era.

The Latin fathers adopt the same vocabulary and an identical stance. Tertullian shows that the pagan gods have no substance (Apologetics 10.2); then he attacks the statues as inert matter, simulacra made of material related to that of vases and ordinary utensils (12.2). In a similar fashion, Firmicus Maternus speaks of the imagines consecratas of public pagan worship (Octavius 24.5). Augustine gives a definitive structure to this criticism of idolatry made by the Latin apologists. Speaking of the pagan gods, he shows the semantic relationship between simulacrum and idolum: "simulacra, which in Greek are called idols" (Expositions on the Psalms 135.3). In his eyes, the idol worshipers are daemonicolae. The idol lets the demon make his own revelation (Mandouze, 1958).

The words eidōlolatria and eidōlolatrēs are found neither in secular Greek texts nor in the Septuagint nor in the writings of Philo Judaeus. They are a specific contribution of the New Testament and Christian literature of the first Christian centuries. Paul considers idolatry a grave sin and puts it on the list of sins that Christians must avoid (1 Cor. 5:10–11, 6:9, 10:7, 10:14; Gal. 5:20; Col. 3:5; Eph. 5:5). The writer of 1 Peter 4:3 speaks in analogous fashion of the worship of idols that ought to be rejected by Christians. The same idea appears in Revelation 21:8 and 22:15.

The use of the two words becomes constant in Greek patristic literature. Clement of Alexandria even leaves a definition of idolatry: "the extension to numerous divinities of what is reserved for the one true God" (Miscellanies 3.12). The Christian church opposed idols and condemned their manufacture. The second-century apologists left a veritable arsenal of arguments on which Christian polemicists would draw until the age of Augustine.

Idolatry and the Hebrew Scriptures

The formal condemnation of idolatry is found in Exodus 20:3–5. The biblical God (whose unvocalized name is YHVH) simultaneously forbids the worship of foreign gods and the making of images that claim to represent him, because it is impossible to represent the God of Israel. A confirmation and amplification of this commandment are found in Deuteronomy 4:12–19. The interdiction pertains to both theriomorphic and anthropomorphic images. It pertains also to symbolic animal representations of the divinity. Thus idolatry is vested with a double aspect: the idolatrous worship of Yahveh as well as the worship of false gods.

The Mosaic prohibition

The second commandment forbids the making of representations of the divinity (Ex. 20:4–6; Dt. 4:15–19 and 5:6–9; Lv. 26:1). A rigorous tendency took this Mosaic prohibition literally by banishing all ornamentation of religious buildings. This tendency, which became widespread among the Pharisees, insisted on the spiritualization of God and radically opposed the danger of idolatry. A more liberal tendency has always existed, however, as attested by the animal and human decoration of certain synagogues discovered by archaeologists.

Idolatrous worship of YHVH

Biblical texts refer to this worship on various occasions. The Hebrew tribes underwent the influence of Canaanite culture (Jgs. 3:5–6, Dt. 7:1–5). Micah of the tribe of Ephraim made a pesel and a massekhah, a carved image and idol of cast metal (Jgs. 17:1–13), perhaps an image of God. After his victory over Midian, Gideon made use of the gold taken from the enemy to make and set up an efod (Jgs. 8:22–27). Moreover, there is evidence of the tauriform cult of YHVH in the northern kingdom of Israel after the schism of 935 (1 Kgs. 12:26–32, 2 Kgs. 15:24). In 1 Kings 12:28, Jeroboam presents God, symbolized by the bull (Hadad and Teshub, fertility gods), as the liberator of Israel at the time of the flight from Egypt. The writer of 2 Kings 15:24 speaks of the erection of statues of divine bulls. This is the religious tradition of the golden calf.

The prophets fought the use of images because they represented the danger of superstitition. Hosea 3:4 assails the stelae (matstsebot ) erected next to the altars, the efod, which are either images or instruments for interrogating Yahveh, and the terafim, which closely resemble the efod. Thus, the prophet aims at the elimination of even the accessories to worship. Jeremiah went even further, proclaiming around 587 bce that he would no longer speak of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahveh, which would be neither remembered nor missed, and which would never be built again (Jer. 3:16).

The prophetic argument is simple. It rejects all tangible representation of God as dangerous because the image is distinct from God. Hosea, moreover, refers to the past, to the youth of Israel, and to the flight from Egypt (Hos. 2:17). Thus, prophetic polemics find support in the Mosaic tradition. It is in this context that the incident of the golden calf (Ex. 32) must be understood and seen in terms of a protest against the worship of the tauriform Yahveh. Clearly, one is confronted here with a total rejection of the symbolism of the idol.

Idolatry as worship of false gods

The second aspect of idolatry holds a much larger place in the Bible; to understand it is necessary to review the history of idolatry in Israel. The ancestors of the chosen people practiced polytheism. Joshua recalled this in his address to the assembly at Shechem: The father of Abraham and Nahor served other gods (Jos. 24:2, 24:14), and even in Egypt some Hebrews worshiped pagan divinities. Upon their return from Egypt, the seminomadic Hebrew tribes who settled in Canaan came under the influence of the surrounding pagan culture and were always tempted to adopt their gods (Jgs. 10:6; 1 Sm. 7:4, 12:10). Furthermore, kings often advanced polytheism by the introduction of foreign wives who kept their gods (1 Kgs. 11:7, 11:33). Amos accuses his contemporaries of worshiping Sakkuth and Kaiwan (Am. 5:26), two astral divinities. The prestige of the Assyrian pantheon exercised a profound influence on the populations of Israel. During the reign of Manasseh (688–642 bce) a serious religious crisis broke out. Shaken by the triumphs of the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, the faithful turned to the gods of the conquerors (2 Kgs. 21:1–9, 23:4–14). They worshiped the sun, the moon, the baal s, and the Astartes (Jer. 2:8, 7:9). Nergal and other divinities reigned in the sanctuaries (2 Kgs. 17:30–31). After 587 came the trial of exile, followed by a spiritual reform. The prophets' orations were beneficial for the piety of Israel, which regained consciousness of its monotheistic faith. Upon returning from exile, they were vigilant about keeping their distance from idolatry, which continued to threaten the people because of the populations that remained in Palestine, especially in Samaria. The reaction against idolatrous cults was especially characteristic of the syncretic attempts under Antiochus IV Epiphanes (2 Mc. 6:2). The entire Jewish nation drew tightly together around the faith in Yahveh.

The most formidable opponents of idolatry were the prophets and their prophecies. At the solemn unveiling of the golden calf at Bethel, a prophet appeared before Jeroboam and announced Yahveh's threat (1 Kgs. 13:1–32). Elijah and Elisha fought against the worship of Baal and his priests (1 Kgs. 18:22–40). Amos reproached his Judean compatriots for letting themselves be seduced by idols (Am. 2:4). Hosea spoke harshly also, because in his eyes the worship of Israel had become idolatry (Hos. 4:12–13). Isaiah attacked the idols and announced their fall (Is. 2:20, 17:7–8, 30:22).

One of the important themes of the prophetic polemic is the emptiness of false gods. Idols are nothing but stone and wood (Jer. 16:20). Hosea does not hesitate to liken idolatry to fetishism, for in his eyes the image is set up in place of God (Hos. 8:4–6). Isaiah writes veritable satires of the Babylonian gods, whom he compares to nothingness (Is. 44:14–17). These mindless gods are carried about by beasts of burden (Is. 46:1–2). The theme of the idol as vacuous will continue its march, to be exploited by subsequent prophets (Bar. 6, Dn. 13:65–14:42). Moreover, it will crystallize into an imposing number of ironic and scornful terms: nothingness, insubstantial puff of wind, lie, corpse. Ezekiel's favorite word is gillutim ("dunghill"). Derision of false gods is a biblical tradition antedating the prophets and continuing after the exile (Preuss, 1971).

The Wisdom of Solomon, written in Greek on the eve of the common era, holds a veritable trial of idolatry, especially in chapters 13–15. The author rejects the worship of nature, idolatry, and zoolatry (worship of animals). However, while remaining completely faithful to the biblical tradition, he reflects his time by paying homage to the beauty of nature and works of art. He attacks the Stoic conception of gods according to which Zeus was the ether, Poseidon the ocean, and Demeter the earth (Wis. 13:1–19). He attacks the dynastic cult of the Ptolemies (14:17–20) and the mystery religions (14:23). In his view, the adherents of zoolatry have completely lost their reason (15:18–19). It is in terms of an authentic Yahvism that he judges pagan religions. He considers idolatry a fundamental disorder because it gives the name of God to that which is not God (13:2, 14:15, 14:20). Furthermore, the faithful adore dead idols that are incompetent and powerless. This disorder, which comes from seduction, leads to a mental aberration that in the end produces a moral deficiency among the faithful, who fall into error if not into lechery. Yet even while condemning these mistaken ideas from which Abraham and the chosen people escaped, the author speaks of his admiration for art. The Wisdom of Solomon has left a veritable synthesis of biblical polemics against idols, a synthesis into which certain ideas from the contemporary Greek world have already entered.

Idolatry and Christianity

The study of idolatry from the point of view of early Christianity is linked to problems of the birth of Christian art and the question of images, their worship, and the refusal to worship them. The attitude to adopt toward idols had been prescribed to the Christians from the first decades of the church. The Christians coming from Judaism had very strong traditions. Christians who converted from paganism radically separated themselves from idols and their worship. They all lived in the midst of pagan populations who had proliferated temples, altars, statues, sacrifices, processions, and festivals in Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Middle East. The rapid expansion of Christianity into the provinces of the empire obliged the church to take very clear positions in regard to pagan cults.

The biblical heritage

Traces of the Old Testament opposition to idols are found in the New Testament, where eidōlon appears several times in the Pauline epistles. Galatians 4:8 takes up the common theme of pagan gods who have no substance. In 1 Corinthians 10:19, Paul states that when one venerates idols, one is appealing to demons. This idea had already appeared in Deuteronomy 32:17 and was developed after the exile as a result of the success of demonology. The Pauline polemic revives the notion that the pagans offer sacrifices to demons. Demonolatry is also denounced in Revelation 9:20. The double biblical theme of the emptiness of idols and the demonic character of idolatry will be taken up later by the apologists and the church fathers.

The biblical heritage concerning idols also reached Christians by a second route, namely that of Philo Judaeus. In Allegory of the Law Philo tries to differentiate the divinity from any human likeness, because "anthropomorphism is an impiety greater than the ocean" (On the Confusion of Tongues 27). In On the Decalogue (52–80) and Of the Contemplative Life (3–9), he writes two accounts of the pagan gods. Both follow the same five-point outline: (1) a critique of the deification of the elements (earth, water, air, fire); (2) a critique of the deification of the sun, the moon, and the cosmos; (3) a critique of the gods considered as actors in mythology; (4) an attack against idolatry; and finally (5) a critique of zoolatry. J. Schwartz (1971) has called this "the Philonian schema." It influenced the critique of idolatry by Greek and Latin apologists, who drew on it for part of their own polemical material. On the subject of the worship of statues and divine images, Philo writes, "Their substance is of rock and wood, which was completely formless just a little while before.… Fragments which were their brothers or their family have become vessels for bath water or foot-washing basins" (On the Contemplative Life 7).

The Greek apologists and fathers

In his first Apology (9.1–5), Justin Martyr collects the principal themes of second-century polemics against idols: The human form is not suitable to divinity; idols have no soul and are made from a base substance; they are works of depraved artisans and bait for thieves; they bear the names of maleficent demons in whose appearance they are clothed. In his Apology Aristides of Athens has no sympathy for the idols of the Greeks. He severely condemns the sin of worshiping created things but is even harsher toward the barbarians, who revere earth, water, the sun, and the moon, and create idols they present as divinities. In his Libellus, another Athenian, Athenagoras, attempts to show that making statues of divinities is recent. All such statues are the works of people whose names are known. The artists have therefore made gods who are younger than their creators. In short, all these idols are no more than fragments of creation that the faithful adore in place of the creator. After this interpretation of idolatry in the sense of fetishism, Athenagoras explains the manipulation of idols by demons. The demons urge the faithful to block around the idols, then during the sacrifices they lick the blood of the victims. But all these gods had once been humans. A heritage of the secularized Greek age of the centuries just prior to the Christian era, this theme of euhemerism was to be a weighty argument, one the Fathers would use continuously.

Clement of Alexandria wrote his Protrepticus in order to convince the worshipers of the gods of what he held to be the stupidity and baseness of pagan myths. He first tries to determine the origin and nature of idols. Blocks of wood and pillars of rock in ancient times, they became human representations thanks to the progress of art, of which the author gives a well-documented survey. Then Clement poses the fundamental question: Where did the gods represented by idols come from? The historical response to this question, inspired by euhemerism, is the deification of human beings, of kings who have declared themselves divine, and of kings by their successors. Clement then gives a theological answer, partly inspired by Plato: The pagan gods are demons, shadows, infamous and impure spirits. Consequently, the error and moral corruption of idolatry becomes clear. The error is serious, for it leads the faithful to worship matter and demons as divine. The corruption of morals is a consequence of error: Idols excite lust and sensuality, which were invented by demons. To idolatry, Clement opposes the adoration of the true God, who shows humanity its proper dignity. Clement indicates this path of happiness by invoking Deuteronomy (5:8), Exodus (20:4), the Sybilline Oracles (4:4–7, 24:27–30), and Christian doctrine (1 Pt. 2:9; Rom. 6:4; Jn. 8:23). Chapter 4 of the Protrepticus is a veritable synthesis of the Christian concept of idolatry at the end of the second century.

The Latin apologists

The position taken by the Latin apologists in regard to the pagan gods constitutes a final stage. Here one again finds the Philonian schema of the De vita contemplativa (3–9). Yet, this schema is not a dead weight that condemns the argumentation of the Fathers to die-hard conservatism. Two facts emerge from the study of these documents: On the one hand, the researcher is witnessing a permanent renewal of the antipolytheistic argument; on the other hand, the authors take into account changes in the pagan cults, especially the rise of the mystery cults with their new religiosity. The documents appear at intervals from the late second to the fourth century: To the Nations, Apology, and On Idolatry by Tertullian; Octavius by Minucius Felix; To Donatus, To Quirinius, To Demetrianus, Quod idola di non sint by Cyprian; Divinae institutiones and Epitome by Lactantius Firmianus; and De errore profanorum religionum by Firmicus Maternus.

The pagan gods are not idols, states Tertullian: "We stopped worshiping your gods once we realized they do not exist" (Apology 10.2). He first substantiates his statement through history, for it is known where these gods were born and where their tombs are. He reproaches the pagans for claiming that their gods became gods after death because of their merits in the service of humans. After these considerations inspired by euhemerism, Tertullian tackles the question of simulacra. The statues are only inert matter, just like vases, dishes, and furniture. Insensitive to outrage or homage, these statues are given over to commerce if not to destruction. Tertullian treats these questions at greater length in On Idolatry, which undertakes to show that idolatry is the gravest sin, encompassing all others. He condemns painting, modeling, sculpture, and participation in public festivals, because idolatry hides beneath seemingly innocent actions. Furthermore, he forbids Christians to teach or to conduct business, for both pursuits require contact with idols. In short, all the powers and dignities of this world are alien to God; for this reason, Christians must likewise be forbidden the military life.

The Latin apologists also developed the idea that pagan gods are demons. Demonology held a place of honor at the beginning of the common era. Both Greek and Latin apologists transformed the false gods into demons. The fathers seized the opportunity to turn these demons, intermediary beings between humanity and divinity, into characters lurking in the shadows of idols. Minucius Felix explains that "the demons hide behind statues and sacred images and, by exhaling their breath," exercise their mysterious effects—spells, dreams, prodigies (Octavius 27.1–3). In To the Nations Tertullian speaks of the pagan gods represented by idols that the demons use as masks to deceive men, and in On Idolatry, he curses artists and workers who fashion these bodies for the demons. Minucius Felix does not hesitate to make the demons the beneficiaries of sacrifice. Taking up Tertullian's notion that the devil, in the mysteries of Mithra, mimics the Christian faith, Minucius Felix accuses the devil of having plagiarized Christian ritual in the religions of Mithra and Isis. Firmicus Maternus develops this theory further and discovers the devil everywhere in paganism—in idolatry, zoolatry, the deification of sovereigns, and astrology. Thus a shaken paganism faces a decisive condemnation of idolatry and idols.

Augustine

In his Against the Pagans, completed in 311, the convert Arnobius attacked paganism, denounced the anthropomorphism of the pagan cult, ridiculed the pagans' conception of the gods, censured their myths, and attacked the mystery cults. His disciple Lactantius, converted, like him, under the persecution of Diocletian, and began his Divinae institutiones in 304. Lactantius demonstrates that monotheism is the only form of belief in God consistent with truth and reason. Speaking of the general evil of polytheism, he explains it by euhemerism and by the ruse of demons who get themselves adored under divine names first in families and then in cities.

On August 24, 410, the hordes of Alaric entered Rome and subjected the city to pillage. The pagans accused the Christians of having destroyed the worship of the gods and thus chased away the city's protectors. Augustine's answer was the City of God, written between 413 and 426, whose twenty-two books constitute the last great apologetic work against ancient paganism.

The pagan gods were a prime target, but Augustine found himself confronting a paganism with multiple and contradictory aspects. Besides the divine populace of country rituals, there were the gods of the classical pantheon, deified men, and a Stoic pantheism that turned Jupiter into a world soul. Throughout the first ten books of City of God, Augustine launches a critique, in turn acerbic and ironic, of the Roman gods, polytheism, and mythology. To strike a fatal blow at the idols, he brings in Varro, Cicero, Seneca, Euhemerus, Apuleius, and Plato. He tries to fight Varro's theology with its false gnosis of etymologies of divine names and its tripartition of gods introduced by poets, philosophers, and heads of state. But Augustine knows that idols are not mere beings without substance, invented during the course of history. These idols are also in the hearts of worshipers, for idolatry consists of worshiping creation or a part of it as God. This theme is developed in On Christian Doctrine and On True Religion, in which Augustine, not content with a critique of the idol, launches a critique of the idol's worshiper, whom he considers a devil worshiper.

Thus, an essential aspect of Augustine's criticism of idolatry is his study of demonology. After having reviewed some of the major themes of his predecessors, he virtually psychoanalyzes the work of demons in the life of idol worshipers. Evoked by humans, demons take possession of idols. The simulacra become animate, and the work of demons can be achieved because the idol is no longer inert: An invisible numen is present. The idol serves as body for the demon. It receives life from the demon, to whom it lends itself. By this means, the demon accomplishes his revelation. For this reason, Augustine repeats incessantly, "The gods are demons, and worshipers of idols are worshipers of demons." Yet in book 8 of City of God, he diminishes the power of demons somewhat, because they are not gods. For Augustine, these false gods are lying angels who continue their struggle against the true God. The malice of the sin of idolatry is thus exposed.

Christianity since Augustine

Ever since the conversion of the empire to Catholicism, paganism had been in retreat. After one last revival under the emperor Julian, it found a tough opponent in Theodosius the Great (r. 379–395), who forbade idolatry as a crime of lèse-majesté. The fifth century witnessed the demolition of temples and idols; Augustine gave the final blow to pagan theology. But the church remained vigilant in order to uproot the last implantations of paganism and squelch its influence among the people. This preoccupation would be translated in three ways: penitential discipline enacted against the sin of idolatry; the teaching of morality, beginning with the writings of Tertullian; and the constant purification of Christian worship and vigilance regarding the veneration of saints. Several great controversies, especially iconoclasm and the Reformation, show that idolatry remained a preoccupation. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Protestants often accused the Catholic church of maintaining ceremonies and traditions tainted by idolatry. Recent discussions about the cult of the saints, the worship of images, and the origin of Christian worship show the historical and theological importance of the problem.

Idolatry and Islam

An Arab proverb recorded by al-Maydānī says, "When you enter a village, swear by its god." On the eve of the Hijrah, Arab tribes venerated many gods. In his work Kitāb al-aṣnām (Cairo, 1914), Ibn al-Kalbī described the prosperity of the cult of idols in the pre-Islamic age (Jāhilīyah). These idols were anṣāb, or raised stones; garis, or stones upon which the blood of sacrifice was poured; sacred trees; and statuettes that were bought and sold at fairs and markets. Another word used by al-Kalbī, which is also found in the commentators of the Qurʾān, is ṣanam (pl., aṣnām ), "an object venerated next to God." The word has a Semitic origin and seems close to the Hebrew semel, "representation." The word is found five times in the Qurʾān (6:74, 7:134, 14:38, 21:58, 26:1), designating the "idol" rejected by Muslims. In the pre-Islamic age ṣanam designated diverse objects: statues sculpted like the god Hubal, statues around the Kaʿbah in Mecca, and sacred trees and stones. These stones, which received libations and became objects of worship, were anṣāb (sg., nuṣub ); the Arabs carried them in their migrations. Therefore ṣanam does not mean "divinity."

Al-Azraqī says that in Mecca there was an idol in every house. Through this proliferation of idols, the Arab invoked divinity. The gods of this vast pantheon brought the divine into the everyday realities of existence. The distinctions between various epiphanies resided in the names given them and the numerous sanctuaries. Onomastic documentation takes one back to a distant age where these idols existed, epiphanies of the divine. In addition, Hellenism introduced into Arab paganism heroes, ancestors, and genies from Petra, Palmyra, and other Hellenistic cities.

Another word is shirk (mushrikūn ), which designates the act of associating a person with divinity; it is the word for polytheism. In the Qurʾān the word appears in the Medina sūrahs, where its use is frequent in Muḥammad's attacks on the associators, the mushrikūn (sūrah 6:94, 10:19, 30:12, 39:4). Such persons are to be avoided by believers. One must not pray for them, even if they are relatives (9:114). Their sin will not be pardoned. The word kāfir, "unbeliever," is more general and includes both the associators and the possessors of scripture (Jews and Christians). In the Qurʾān shirk, "associator," is the opposite of muslim, "worshiper of God." Shirk retains this meaning in the ḥadīth.

Muḥammad's opposition to idolatry is a Judeo-Christian inheritance. Abraham becomes the prototype of the monotheistic faith that Muḥammad espouses. Abraham is to the prophets what the Arabs are to other Muslim peoples. Beginning with Abraham's revelation, Muḥammad goes on to see in Islam not only the true monotheism but primordial hanifism (from ḥanīf, one who follows the original and true monotheistic religion; a Muslim), which was transmitted by Abraham's son Ishmael, following in his father's footsteps. It is in this original path that one discovers the Qurʾān's opposition to idolatry.

Idols are the enemies of God and his worshipers. Referring again to Abraham, the Qurʾān condemns them along with the whole Semitic ancestral tradition, which is the origin of their worship, a worship radically opposed to the worship of the one true God (26:69–83). The same idea is found in the text of sūrah 21:53/52 to 70, which tells how Abraham smashed the idols worshiped by his countrymen. These idols had no substance and were incapable of creating anything (25:3–5/4). Moses had to intervene against the sons of Israel who, after their flight from Egypt, began to worship the idols that they made for themselves (7:134/138). Thus Muḥammad orders his followers to avoid the stain of idolatry and to serve God in complete fidelity (22:31/30).

Throughout the whole Qurʾān is found opposition to idols and idolatry. One must turn away from them (15:94) for they bring unhappiness to their worshipers (41:5/6), who are nothing but liars upon whom God will inflict torment after torment (16:88/86–90/88). The idolators' error is a grave one because they have no faith in God (12:106), to whom they compare mere creatures (30:30). A terrible punishment awaits them: They will be treated like their idols (10:29/28), who will abandon them to their sad fate when they stand before the fire (6:23–29). Because of the seriousness of this error, the law of the Qurʾān demands that Muslims neither marry a woman idolator nor give their daughters to idolators in marriage (2:220–221). The Qurʾān makes a distinction between idolators (associators) on the one hand, and possessors of scripture on the other, that is to say, Jews and Christians. However, the two categories of non-Muslims are guilty of infidelity in respect to God, as emphasized in surah 98. In sūrah 22:17 (evidently a later text), is found the opposition between Muslims on the one hand, and Jews, Christians, Sabaeans, and Zoroastrians on the other. The Qurʾān demands that Muslims fight idolators (9:36).

Idolatry consists of associating a god or gods with God (51:51, 50:25–26). This idea keeps recurring; it is the Qurʾān 's definition of idolatry, whence the word for associators. Idolatry is an insult to God, because honors reserved for him alone are bestowed on false gods. Sūrah 17:111 shows that there are three degrees of association: children, associates in kingship, and protectors (sg., walī ). The idea of the protector is found several times in the Qurʾān. In sūrah 39:4/3, saints are divinities that the faithful worship because they consider them intermediaries who will bring them closer to God. From the beginning, in Islam, fear of idolatry led to the suppression of all mediation between the faithful and God. Association in kingship consists of putting false gods on an equal footing with the one and only God (14:35/30, 26:92, 26:98). It involves an actual insult to God, for the power of the Creator is given to beings who have no substance (32:3/4, 40:69/67, 29:41/42). These idols are only names (12:40); God is the sole master of the world and people. A third means of association consists of attributing children to God (43:81), an idea that appears repeatedly in diverse forms. The Qurʾān is undoubtedly alluding to polytheistic myths and statues of divinities in temples. Sūrah 23:93/91 tells of the quarrels of the gods who claim to be superior to each other. There is also mention of goddesses, daughters of God (43.15, 52:39). The most famous passage is sūrah 53:19–21, satanic verses about the three goddesses of the Kaʿbah. These goddesses were highly honored in the pre-Islamic Arab world, with great financial returns for the tribe of Quraysh. At the beginning of his preaching, the Prophet did not dare touch them. After the seizure of Mecca in 630, however, he had all the idols of the Kaʿbah destroyed in his presence.

The essence of idolatry resides in the insult to God by the associators, who confer on mere creatures the honors and worship reserved for the Unique, the Creator, the Master of the World. Like the apologists and the Fathers of the church, the Qurʾān insists on the work of the demon who impels men toward idols. Abraham asks his father not to worship Satan (19:45/44), who turns men away from the worship of God (27:24). The demon is the patron of idolators (16:65/63) and as such is opposed to God (4:118/119). Consequently, idolatry becomes the demon's auxiliary (25:57/55). In sūrah 4:117, the Qurʾān says that idolators pray only to females, or to a rebellious demon.

Allāh is the creator God, judge, dealer of retribution, unique and one in himself, all-powerful, and merciful. He reveals himself through his prophets. He does not show himself, but is recognized in the signs of the universe, in the signs of God, āyāt Allāh. He can be known only by his word, his names, his attributes, and his deeds. In any case, he cannot be represented by an image or a representation. Islam is a religion without icons.

Idolatry and Homo Religiosus

Idolatry is a historical-religious concept that finds expression in the response and behavior of the three great monotheisms when confronted with the beliefs and the practices of the polytheistic religions they encountered along their way. This concept was developed in the course of discussions and confrontations with these monotheisms: three religions of the Book, depositories of a revelation, animated by prophecy and doctrines of salvation—religions that join humanity to a personal God who appears in history. Idolatry means divine worship of beings who are not God in the eyes of those who have defined worship as idolatrous. The word has a negative and pejorative connotation because to the faithful of a monotheistic religion, attitudes, behaviors, and rites that should be strictly reserved for the true God are turned by the idolator toward false gods. Thus, idolatry is a fundamental religious disequilibrium due to two paradoxical facts: on the one hand a divine cultus, on the other a substitute for the divine that is not God.

Fetishism is a historical-religious concept developed in the modern age by ethnologists and historians of religions, with a view to explaining the creeds of primal black peoples of western Africa. In Du culte des dieux fétiches (1760), Charles de Brosses tried to apprehend humankind in its archaic state of raw nature. He observed that ancient peoples worshiped animals, trees, plants, fountains, lakes, seas, stars, and rivers as contemporary primitives still do. To this worship, de Brosses gave the name fetishism, a term formed from the Portuguese feitiço ("witchcraft, bewitched subject"). Humanity sees an active presence in the fetish, which provokes fear and the need for protection. Humankind obtains protection through the observance of rites. Thus, the fetishist worships the object directly, unlike in polytheism, which de Brosses viewed as a more structured religion in which symbols are characterized above all by the image and the statue.

Research has made the notion of fetishism more precise. Fetishism is the belief in the existence of a power, concentrated in beings or objects, that humanity must harness for its own well-being. This power is obtained by means of individual or collective rites. The beneficial result will be a function of the force obtained; therefore humankind uses a whole web of rituals in order to increase the force and then capture it. The context here remains one of worship, but one in which ritual receives the greatest emphasis.

This parallel between two phenomena of worship, idolatry and fetishism, will allow one to better situate idolatry as a religious phenomenon perceived by the historian of religions. In this view, idolatry is the worship of a divinity represented by a substitute for the divine, called an idol. To grasp the different dimensions of this worship, the historians of religions center their research on homo religiosus at work in the exercise of this worship. They seek to understand human behavior through human rites and in the implementation of the human symbolic system.

In the Greco-Roman world, voices were raised against the adoration of divinity in human form by Heraclitus, Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Euripides, Diogenes and the Cynics, and Stoics such as Zeno and Seneca. Reflecting on the divinity, these thinkers tried to establish themselves as intermediaries between the philosophers' religion and that of the people. In this area, Plutarch's thought becomes apparent. Seeking to avoid the two extremes of superstition and atheism, he emphasizes that divine life and intelligence are not subordinate to humans. Likewise, he refuses the application of gods' names to insensate natures or inanimate objects (De Iside 66–67). In Egypt, he confronts zoolatry, which may lead to repugnant aberrations because of the worship of sacred animals. However, observing that the Egyptians were extraordinary inventors of symbols and emblems, Plutarch accepts the symbolism of the divine manifested in the life of beings. Consequently, he approves of those for whom these beings are an occasion to worship the divine.

During the first century of the common era, Dio Cocceianus (Chrysostomos) of Prusa, writing an apology for Greek art, affirmed: "We invest God with the human body since it is the vessel of thought and reason. In the complete absence of a primitive model we seek to reveal the incomparable and the invisible by means of the visible and the comparable, in a higher manner than certain barbarians who, in their ignorance and absurdity, liken the divinity to animal shapes." For Dio, plastic beauty expresses the divine. A century later the eclectic Platonist Maxim of Tyre treated the question of the legitimacy of portraying the gods. He notes that the Persians adored the divinity in the ephemeral image of fire; that the Egyptians contemplated their gods in objects and beings worthy of scorn; and that though the images may vary, the essential thing is to worship divinity: "God, the father of all things and their creator, existed before the sun and is older than the sky.… Since we cannot grasp his essence, we seek help in words, names, animal shapes, figures of gold, ivory, and silver" (Philosophumena 2.10).

Augustine leaves numerous allusions to the allegorical interpretation of idolatry by pagan authors. In Expositions on the Psalms 113 he speaks of certain people who claim that their worship does not really address itself to the elements themselves but to the divinities who are their masters. The same idea is found elsewhere in the same work (96), where the idolator declares that he worships the statue he sees, but submits to the god he does not see; the statue is only a substitute for the divinity. The pagan authors targeted by Augustine are perhaps the emperor Julian, Porphyry, and Varro.

The history of religions approaches idolatry in terms of those four fundamental aspects of religious belief and practice that homo religiosus has been evolving from prehistoric times down to the present: the sacred, myth, rite, and symbol. The idol represents a hierophany in which humans perceive a manifestation of the sacred that clothes the object in a new dimension. This dimension is obtained by means of rites consecrating the objects of worship, altars, divine statues, and temples: Sacral presence and sacred space are indispensable. Through consecration, the image or object now belongs to the divinity and can no longer serve a secular use. The Egyptian rituals for opening the mouth, eyes, nose, and ears of a statue made to represent a divinity attest to a theology of the sacred in which the idol is an incarnation of power and life, a personification; it evokes the greatness of the god. Greek art tried to render this sacral dimension through the whiteness of marble or through protective coatings applied to the idols. Worship reactualizes myths that put the worshiper in contact with primordial time and furnish him models for his life. Thanks to this celebration, humanity again becomes contemporary with the primordial event, which awakens and maintains its awareness of a world distinct from the secular world.

This mythical behavior of homo religiosus is likewise found in Christian worship, but with an essential difference: The return to a primordial event is not a return to mythical time, but to the historical time of the life of Christ. The Incarnation is effected in a historical time: The Christians who celebrate the mysteries of Christ know that they are simultaneously attaining the historical time of Jesus and the trans-historic time of the Word of God.

Idolatry is the area in which rites and symbols are multiplied. For humankind, it is a matter of transcending the human condition through contact with the sacred. The human reference point remains the archetype. This is the role of ritual. Religions have left extraordinary documentation on the rites of celebration, as for instance the sacrificial rites of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as sacred meals with mystical participation of the gods through statues led in procession; rituals of sacrifice with three fires in the Indo-European world; rites of soma in India and of haoma in Iran; the symbolism of the cults of Cybele and Mithra; the rites of daily worship in Egyptian temples; the power of the rite and of the word in the imitation of the primordial gesture of the god Thoth, creator of the cosmos; funeral rituals of embalming in ancient Egypt, linked to the Osiris myth; and the symbolism of the altar and of gestures in Hindu temples. Incorporated in the life and existence of homo religiosus, the symbolism of worship has the function of revelation, for it is the language of hierophany. It reveals a dimension that transcends the natural dimension of life. Consequently, it introduces a new significance into the life of individuals and society. In the celebration of worship, such sacred symbolism, myths, and rites help humankind to penetrate the mystery of salvation, a mystery that is represented by the holy history of human religion and culture.

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