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A Reappraisal of the Byzantine Iconoclasm: Image Conflicts and Reconciliation Strategies in the Inculturation of Catholicism in East Asia



Author(s)

ZHAO Zijian

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2025.06.006

Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, China

The emergence of the Byzantine Iconoclasm was underpinned by profound historical and cultural factors. Its impact on “icon veneration” serves as a paradigmatic case of religious image conflicts. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, as Catholicism expanded eastward into East Asia, deep-seated conflicts arising from “icon veneration” occurred. These conflicts involved the ancestral worship system in China, the taboos of Shinto in Japan, and the ritual codes in Korea influenced by Confucian culture. A comparative study of these conflicts with the Byzantine Iconoclasm is thus warranted. The conflicts between Catholicism and traditional cultures in East Asia are, in essence, manifestations of the cognitive disparities between the “sacredness” of icons and the “de-iconization” traditions within East Asian cultures. In contrast to the forceful destruction of icons in Byzantium, East Asian responses predominantly took the form of informal communal negotiations. For example, in Quanzhou, China, angel statues were placed within the niches of the Earth God, while in Japan, the Virgin Mary statue was adapted to resemble the Avalokitesvara statue. The key to resolving the conflicts regarding “icon veneration” lies in dissociating the political power connotations of icons and transforming them into “visual media” for cultural dialogue and “spiritual carriers” of a religious nature. The “East Asian experience” thus reveals a harmonization paradigm for religious inculturation during the dissemination of Catholicism, which holds significant implications for the contemporary spread and stability of Catholicism.

Catholicism, Iconoclasm, East Asia, folklore, inculturation