Idolatry

Idolatry or idol worship is a term of disparagement used by certain monotheistic religions, in reference to certain religious practices. The Hebrew Bible condemned neighboring religions, such as those practriced by Akkadians, Mesopotamians, and Egyptians, as idolatrous, and warned against idol worship by Hebrews. Judaism's animosity towards these "pagan" religions was inherited by Christianity; as Islam developed it would adopt such views as well.

Common beliefs of these polytheist and pagan religions were:

Certain objects and places have natural power (or mana) not present elsewhere.
Prayers in the presence of these objects or places are likelier to be heard by the gods than elsewhere
Certain objects or idols have supernatural power.

These beliefs are at variance with the idea of monotheism, which holds that all power comes from God alone, and not from any other supernatural gods or agents. In such systems "God" at best would be the stronger of many other gods; this God then could not have omnipotence, God would not have an independent and sovereign will. Within the context of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, these beliefs are termed idolatry, and held to be a sin.

The Bible's reaction against paganism does not seem to directly to address the religions of other cultures of which the Biblical authors were not aware, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. However, Shintoism, Hinduism and Buddhism have been accused of practicing idolatry and polytheism, a charge which most practioners of those religions reject.

Shintoism is a religion which worships kami or nature spirits; it often uses various objects to represent these spirits in its shrines, which often gives the appearance of idolatry to westerners.

Ancient forms of Hinduism were polytheistic. Many Hindus today still are polythesists. However, over the milennia, a monotheistic version of Hinduism has evolved. In this latter view, the multiple Hindu divinities ("divine aspects", or "gods") have been reinterpreted to represent different aspects of one natural power. Among adherents of this view, Hinduism has effectively been turned into a quasi-monotheism, sometimes called henotheism. In some modern forms of Hinduism this process has been carried to the extent where the faith essentially is monotheistic.

Within Buddhism, statues are often used to represent bodhisattvas who are intended objects of veneration. In contrast to the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism does not mantain a sharp division between the human and the divine and believes that any human can become a bodhisattva. The tradition in some forms of Buddhism of venerating statues comes from the Greek armies of Alexander the Great who introduced Greek statuary into what is now Afghanistan, from which it was carried further east. Veneration of these images is associated with the temple as a nexus of community and faith, although many adherents have small shrines in their homes or places of business. However, Buddhists do not generally venerate the objects themselves but rather the bodhisattva represented by the object, and it is considered a grave error within Buddhism to for example, risk ones life or the life of another to rescue a Buddhist statue. Most Buddhists would argue that their attitude through images and statues are analogous toward Catholic attitudes toward saints and their representations.

Discerning idols from symbols and icons

The rift is not exclusively along monotheist-polytheist lines, however. As an example, Jehovah's Witnesses, a denomination within the Protestant sect of monotheistic Christianity, holds in disfavor the practice, by most Christians, of wearing or displaying a cross, claiming it to be a form of idolatry. Those who do practice this don't worship the symbols themselves, however, and many Christians, particularly Catholics, have long maintained elaborate symbolic traditions. Thus the difference is largely one of interpretation, and the misintrepretation of symbols for idols.

Catholicism is a rather colorful example, wherin it can be seen how within Western religious tradition, symbolic themes can be nearly identical to many Eastern-religious symbols. In fact, many scholars of comparative religion see these as not only similar but related. If one suspends literal belief in a respective religious tradition, it can quite easily be seen how symbols can be substituted between Western religions and Eastern ones.

In fact such symbols are sometimes literally substituted. Some Buddhists in the Far East to consider Catholic saints and Christ himself to be examples of bodhisattvas, and some early Catholic missionaries believed that the devotion to Guan Yin was in fact a Chinese version of the Virgin Mary. The notion that "polytheists worship idols" does not hold as valid: Most "polytheism" is, perhaps often, a misnomer for "symbol-rich traditions" of worship.

The question of whether Buddhists and Chinese folk religion consists of worshipping a God or veneration of a saint was historically important to the Catholic church in the Chinese Rites controversy of the early 18th century. The dispute was between the Dominicans who argued that Buddhism and Chinese folk religion was worship and therefore incompatible with Catholicism and the Jesuits which argued the reverse. The pope ultimately ruled in favor of the Dominicans which greatly reduced the role of Catholic missionaries in China.

Another way of viewing idolatry, is as a form of animism which expresses the belief that 'all objects in the world are alive', and thus have "in-dwelling souls", and thus should be worshipped. "Idolatry" also relates to the practicing of "pagan" magic, in that it puts the divine in earthly form and subjects it to human manipulation. For some, the belief that certain objects or places are sacred or holy, the veneration paid to images, icons, or relics of saints and other religious figures, the practice of pilgrimages to remote places where religiously significant events occurred, are all forms of idolatry. These are all forms of fetishism in the religious sense. These same actions can also be performed for completely different reasons, and with different meanings associated with them. The outward similarity may lead both professional anthropologists and lay people to assume that they also express some sort of belief in animism when this is not the case.

Generally speaking, religious faiths that practice what Jews, Christians, or Muslims consider "idolatry" do not consider themselves as practicing "idolatry," though they may well consider themselves polytheists. Idolatry is used mostly to define a religious practice which is considered something to avoid. Those who accept the veneration of images and objects do not proclaim themselves willingly to be idolators (people who worship idols).

In The Religion of Israel Yehezkial Kaufman argued that the popular concept of "idol worship" is a misrepresentation of non-deistic religious beliefs and practices. Other historians of religion have suggested other ways of describing the beliefs and practices in questions. One way of viewing them is as a form of animism which expresses the belief that all objects in the world are alive, and thus have indwelling souls, and thus should be worshipped. Another view of such practices is that the statue or physical object is a material manifestation, or symbol, of a non-material god who holds power over some aspect of the world, such as a particular stream of water or rain in all its forms.

Animism and Paganism

One way of viewing idolatry is as a form of animism which expresses the belief that all objects in the world are alive, and thus have indwelling souls, and thus should be worshipped.

A contrasting view of idolatry is that the statue or idol is the physical form or symbol of a god who holds power over some aspect of the world, such as a particular stream of water or rain in all its forms. Monotheists (including all Jews, Christians and Muslims) object to this form of idolatry because it typically reflects a belief in multiple gods, or polytheism.

Biblical (Abrahamic) view of idolatry

The Bible forbids "the worship of graven images," which many have interpreted to refer to idolatry. Judaism, Christianity and Islam define idolatry in different ways; all of these religions forbid idolatry, as they understand the term, as prohibited and as a sin. Many Evangelical Protestant Christians view all religions other than their own as idolatry, thus condemning even Catholic Christianity as idolatry.

Jewish views of idolatry

In Judaism, it is held that the Ten Commandments prohibit belief in, or worship of, any other deities, gods, or spirits. It is also held to be a prohibition against objects, such as crucifixes, and against the use of artistic representations of God.

A small number of modern Jewish theologians such as Yehezkel Kaufman and Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz have suggested that perhaps only the Israelites were forbidden to worship idols, but perhaps such worship was permissible for members of other religions. (Yehezkel Kaufman, "The Religion of Israel", Univ. of Chicago Press, 1960; J. H. Hertz, "Pentateuch and Haftorahs" Soncino Press, 1960, p.759).

Most Jewish theologians disagree, saying that the original meaning of the text was to condemn idolatry in toto. However, a growing number of theologically liberal Jewish theologians question whether Hindus and Buddhists today should be considered idolaters in the Biblical sense of the term. Their reasons are that modern day Buddhists, Hindus and others (a) do not literally worship "sticks and stones", as the idolaters in the Tanach were described doing. Their beliefs have far more theological depth than ancient pagans, and they are well aware that icons they worship are only symbols of a deeper level of reality, (b) they do not practice child sacrifice, (c) they are of high moral character, and (d) they are not anti-Semitic. As such, some Jews argue that not only does God have a relationship with all gentile monotheists, but that God also maintains a relationship with Hindus, Buddhists and other polytheists.

Christian views of idolatry

Christianity holds that the essential element of the commandment not to make "any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above" is "and bow down and worship it". As a result, many Christian buildings and services feature images, some feature statues, and in some Orthodox services, icons are venerated. For most Christians, this practice is understood as fulfilling the observance of this commandment, as they do not see veneration as being the same as worship.

Eastern Orthodoxy teaches that the incarnation of Jesus makes it permissible to venerate icons, and even necessary in order to preserve the truth of the Incarnation. For Jews and some Protestant Christians this practice is seen as an explicit rejection of the commandment. Very few Christians oppose the making of any images at all, but some groups have been critical of the use others make of images in worship. (See iconoclasm)

Orthodox Christians have criticized the Roman Catholic use of decorative statues; Roman Catholics have criticized the Orthodox veneration of icons; some Protestant groups have criticized the use of stained-glass windows by many other denominations, and Jehovah's Witnesses criticize the use of all of the above, as well as the use of a cross. The Amish are the only Christian group that forbids the use of images in secular life.

Christianity allows, and in many cases, encourages this, e.g. veneration of the cross. Some Christians also are allowed to and in some cases instructed to pray to depictions of deceased holy figures, known as saints. They also venerate images and symbolic liturgical objects used in their cult with actions such as kissing, bowing, and making the sign of the cross. Christians who follow these practices include Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics. They typically hold that saints and their depictions are venerated and not worshipped, and they therefore hold that these practices do not fall under the ban against idolatry.

Christian critics of this position argue that such practices are in effect little different from idolatry. They are believed by critics to be wrong as they localise and particularise God, whom they argue is beyond human depiction. Many Protestants believe that in attributing holiness or power to human artifacts, they foster disbelief in God's omnipotence, and His independent and sovereign will, and suggest instead to human fallibility that He can be manipulated. To them, this is the essence of idolatry considered as a sin. This sort of idolatry can be viewed as a sort of fetishism. Calvinist theologian J.I. Packer, in chapter 3 of his book Knowing God, asserted that even to imagine Jesus Christ as having a specific physical appearance would be a form of idol worship. Such critics are often accused of iconoclasm, which was officially condemned by Catholics and Orthodox at the Second Council of Nicaea (787) but revived in the 16th century by Protestant Reformers.

The vast majority of Christian denominations hold that God particularised himself when he took on flesh and was born as Jesus; through this act God is said to have blessed material things and made them good again. By rising physically from the dead, ascending bodily into Heaven, and promising Christians a physical resurrection, God thus indicates that it is not wrong to be "attached" to physical things, and that matter is not inherently evil, unlike the contemporary teachings of Gnosticism. While God the Father and God the Spirit are forbidden to be depicted in icons since they are invisible, it is acceptable within Christianity to depict God the Son because he came in such a way that people could see, hear and touch him. In this view, the veneration of icons is mandatory; to not venerate icons would imply that Jesus was not also fully God, or to deny that Jesus had a real physical body. Those Christians who denied that Jesus had a body were seen by other Christians as heretics and condemned as such at church-wide councils; their theology is known as docetism.

Muslim views of idolatry

Islam forbids idolatry and polytheism; Most sects of Islam forbid any artistic depictions of human figures, this being shirk, which originally means "partnership:" the sin of associating some other being with the one God, Allah. This is considered akin to idolatry, if not idolatry outright.

Other meanings of idolatry

The term idol is commonly used in a non-religious sense; as in reference to a popular celebrity.