Description
The subject of Alexander's study is the Iconoclastic Controversy: the arguments concerning the legitimacy of Christian images that raged in the Byzantine Empire during the eigth and ninth centuries. The Controversy is studied through Nicephorus, who became Patriarch of Constantinople in 806. As well as providing a complete picture of the issues involved in the struggle over religious images in his own Refutatio et Eversio and other writings, Nicephorus was almost alone in preserving documents of the iconoclasts, notably fragments from the writings of Emperor Constantine V, and the Dogmatic Definition issued by the Iconoclastic Council of St. Sophia. The study includes a paraphrase of Nicephorus' (unpublished) Refutatio et Eversio -- Provided by publisher.
