The word icon etymologically traces itself back to the Greek word eikon which meant an image or figure. Iconography is the study of how images come to be imbued with their cultural and symbolic significance. Religious iconography, a subdivision within this field of study, scrutinizes how different religious denominations have developed distinctive icons to mark their own special traditions, ceremonies and feast days. This essay will offer a brief overview of how Hindu, Taoist and Christian Monasticism began using icons as an inroad for developing their spiritual traditions more definitively. Icons, to be understood as emblematic manifestations of the spirit, intensified the process of meditation for variant religions.
The classical art of Islam reached its zenith in the "sixteenth and seventeenth-century monuments of Ottoman Turkey, Safavid Persia and Mughal India." Great Islamic art is predominantly associated with architecture and ornament. In an attempt to serve as a prophet of purification, Mohammad denounced the idols of ancient Arabia, their animistic religion, and their polytheism. In attempting to forge the Islamic faith Mohammad commanded his fellow Muslims to reject the use of images. His iconoclasm demanded a denouncement of representational art and, in tandem, its use as a visual aid for worship or as a means of propagating the faith. Muhammad's declared aversion to religious icons actually underscores their use as a religious vehicle of extraordinary power.
Scholars of iconography suggest that the enormous power embedded in the icon results from the fact that visual forms are processed by the brain simultaneously rather than sequentially. In her aesthetic study of symbols, Philosophy in a New Key, Langer contends that icons can only be deciphered through reliance upon feeling rather than reason. Langer's contention helps to explain precisely why icons are so powerful a tool for religious worship...