Do Catholics Worship Statues?
"Catholics worship statues!" People still make
this ridiculous claim. Because Catholics have statues in their churches,
goes the accusation, they are violating God’s commandment: "You shall not
make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: you shall not bow down to them or serve them" (Ex. 20:4–5);
"Alas, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves
gods of gold" (Ex. 32:31).
It is right to warn people against the sin of idolatry
when they are committing it. But calling Catholics idolaters because they
have images of Christ and the saints is based on misunderstanding or ignorance
of what the Bible says about the purpose and uses (both good and bad) of
statues.
Anti-Catholic writer Loraine Boettner, in his book
Roman Catholicism, makes the blanket statement, "God has forbidden
the use of images in
worship" (281). Yet if people were to "search
the scriptures" (cf. John 5:39), they would find the opposite is true.
God forbade the worship of statues, but he did not forbid
the religious use of statues. Instead, he actually commanded
their use in religious contexts!
God Said To Make Them
People who oppose religious statuary forget about
the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues.
For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues
of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the
mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other
end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its
two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing
the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the
mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).
David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense
made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot
of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant
of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord
concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr.
28:18–19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells
us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included
statues of angels.
Similarly Ezekiel 41:17–18 describes graven (carved)
images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes,
"On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved
likenesses of cherubim."
The Religious Uses of Images
During a plague of serpents sent to punish the
Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] a fiery
serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees
it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and
if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live"
(Num. 21:8–9).
One had to look at the bronze statue of
the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually,
not merely as religious decorations.
Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic
devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember
one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example
of the saints by looking at pictures of them. Catholics also use statues
as teaching tools. In the early Church they were especially useful for
the instruction of the illiterate. Many Protestants have pictures of Jesus
and other Bible pictures in Sunday school for teaching children. Catholics
also use statues to commemorate certain people and events, much as Protestant
churches have three-dimensional nativity scenes at Christmas.
If one measured Protestants by the same rule, then
by using these "graven" images, they would be practicing the "idolatry"
of which they accuse Catholics. But there’s no idolatry going on in these
situations. God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he doesn’t
ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos, photographs,
paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the case of
the bronze serpent shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of religious
images.
It is when people begin to adore a statue as a
god that the Lord becomes angry. Thus when people did start to worship
the bronze serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous
king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4).
What About Bowing?
Sometimes anti-Catholics cite Deuteronomy 5:9,
where God said concerning idols, "You shall not bow down to them." Since
many Catholics sometimes bow or kneel in front of statues of Jesus and
the saints, anti-Catholics confuse the legitimate veneration of a sacred
image with the sin of idolatry.
Though bowing can be used as a posture in worship,
not all bowing is worship. In Japan, people show respect by bowing in greeting
(the equivalent of the Western handshake). Similarly, a person can kneel
before a king without worshipping him as a god. In the same way, a Catholic
who may kneel in front of a statue while praying isn’t worshipping the
statue or even praying to it, any more than the Protestant who kneels
with a Bible in his hands when praying is worshipping the Bible or praying
to it.
Hiding the Second Commandment?
Another charge sometimes made by Protestants is
that the Catholic Church "hides" the second commandment. This is because
in Catholic catechisms, the first commandment is often listed as "You shall
have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3), and the second is listed as "You
shall not take the name of the Lord in vain." (Ex. 20:7). From this, it
is argued that Catholics have deleted the prohibition of idolatry to justify
their use of religious statues. But this is false. Catholics simply group
the commandments differently from most Protestants.
In Exodus 20:2–17, which gives the Ten Commandments,
there are actually fourteen imperative statements. To arrive at Ten Commandments,
some statements have to be grouped together, and there is more than one
way of doing this. Since, in the ancient world, polytheism and idolatry
were always united—idolatry being the outward expression of polytheism—the
historic Jewish numbering of the Ten Commandments has always grouped together
the imperatives "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3) and
"You shall not make for yourself a graven image" (Ex. 20:4). The historic
Catholic numbering follows the Jewish numbering on this point, as does
the historic Lutheran numbering. Martin Luther recognized that the imperatives
against polytheism and idolatry are two parts of a single command.
Jews and Christians abbreviate the commandments so that they can be remembered
using a summary, ten-point formula. For example, Jews, Catholics, and Protestants
typically summarize the Sabbath commandment as, "Remember the Sabbath to
keep it holy," though the commandment’s actual text takes four verses (Ex.
20:8–11).
When the prohibition of polytheism/idolatry is
summarized, Jews, Catholics, and Lutherans abbreviate it as "You shall
have no other gods before me." This is no attempt to "hide" the idolatry
prohibition (Jews and Lutherans don’t even use statues of saints and angels).
It is to make learning the Ten Commandments easier.
The Catholic Church is not dogmatic about how the
Ten Commandments are to be numbered, however. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church says, "The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied
in the course of history. The present catechism follows the division of
the Commandments established by Augustine, which has become traditional
in the Catholic Church. It is also that of the Lutheran confession. The
Greek Fathers worked out a slightly different division, which is found
in the Orthodox Churches and Reformed communities" (CCC 2066).
The Form of God?
Some anti-Catholics appeal to Deuteronomy 4:15–18
in their attack on religious statues: "[S]ince you saw no form on the day
that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware
lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the
form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any
beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies
in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness
of any fish that is in the water under the earth."
We’ve already shown that God doesn’t prohibit the
making of statues or images of various creatures for religious purposes
(cf. 1 Kgs. 6:29–32, 8:6–66; 2 Chr. 3:7–14). But what about statues or
images that represent God? Many Protestants would say that’s wrong because
Deuteronomy 4 says the Israelites did not see God under any form when he
made the covenant with them, therefore we should not make symbolic representations
of God either. But does Deuteronomy 4 forbid such representations?
The Answer Is No
Early in its history, Israel was forbidden to make
any depictions of God because he had not revealed himself in a visible
form. Given the pagan culture surrounding them, the Israelites might have
been tempted to worship God in the form of an animal or some natural object
(e.g., a bull or the sun).
But later God did reveal himself under visible
forms, such as in Daniel 7:9: "As I looked, thrones were placed and one
that was Ancient of Days took his seat; his raiment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, its
wheels were burning fire." Protestants make depictions of the Father under
this form when they do illustrations of Old Testament prophecies.
The Holy Spirit revealed himself under at least
two visible forms—that of a dove, at the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16;
Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32), and as tongues of fire, on the day of
Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4). Protestants use these images when drawing or painting
these biblical episodes and when they wear Holy Spirit lapel pins or place
dove emblems on their cars.
But, more important, in the Incarnation of Christ
his Son, God showed mankind an icon of himself. Paul said, "He is the
image (Greek: ikon) of the invisible God, the firstborn of all
creation." Christ is the tangible, divine "icon" of the unseen, infinite
God.
We read that when the magi were "going into the
house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down
and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts,
gold, frankincense, and myrrh" (Matt. 2:11). Though God did not reveal
a form for himself on Mount Horeb, he did reveal one in the house in Bethlehem.
The bottom line is, when God made the New Covenant
with us, he did reveal himself under a visible form in Jesus Christ.
For that reason, we can make representations of God in Christ. Even
Protestants use all sorts of religious images: Pictures of Jesus and other
biblical persons appear on a myriad of Bibles, picture books, T-shirts,
jewelry, bumper stickers, greeting cards, compact discs, and manger scenes.
Christ is even symbolically represented through the Icthus or "fish
emblem."
Common sense tells us that, since God has revealed
himself in various images, most especially in the incarnate Jesus Christ,
it’s not wrong for us to use images of these forms to deepen our knowledge
and love of God. That’s why God revealed himself in these visible
forms, and that’s why statues and pictures are made of them.
Idolatry Condemned by the Church
Since the days of the apostles, the Catholic Church
has consistently condemned the sin of idolatry. The early Church Fathers
warn against this sin, and Church councils also dealt with the issue.
The Second Council of Nicaea (787), which dealt
largely with the question of the religious use of images and icons, said,
"[T]he one who redeemed us from the darkness of idolatrous insanity, Christ
our God, when he took for his bride his holy Catholic Church . . . promised
he would guard her and assured his holy disciples saying, ‘I am with you
every day until the consummation of this age.’ . . . To this gracious offer
some people paid no attention; being hoodwinked by the treacherous foe
they abandoned the true line of reasoning . . . and they failed to distinguish
the holy from the profane, asserting that the icons of our Lord and of
his saints were no different from the wooden images of satanic idols."
The Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566)
taught that idolatry is committed "by worshipping idols and images as God,
or believing that they possess any divinity or virtue entitling them to
our worship, by praying to, or reposing confidence in them" (374).
"Idolatry is a perversion of man’s innate religious
sense. An idolater is someone who ‘transfers his indestructible notion
of God to anything other than God’" (CCC 2114).
The Church absolutely recognizes and condemns the
sin of idolatry. What anti-Catholics fail to recognize is the distinction
between thinking a piece of stone or plaster is a god and desiring to visually
remember Christ and the saints in heaven by making statues in their honor.
The making and use of religious statues is a thoroughly biblical
practice. Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know his Bible.
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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