Icons - Between Images and Words. Modes of Representation or Modes of Being?

This paper focuses on the concept of “image” (icon) in the context of Orthodox Christianity and how images/icons relate to “reality.” The author also addresses the complex and ambivalent relations between words and images in “Western” tradition in order to explore the underlying properties of both images and words (in a theological discourse) in relation to reality. The analysis of this tension between words and images enables the author to explore the reasons that led to their sharp contrasting in particular historical periods and theoretical discourses, as well as to explore the ways this tension between images and words can be resolved in Orthodox Christian iconology.