The 2nd Council of Nicaea and Hans Urs von Balthasar: from a Philosophy of Icons to a Teological Aesthetics

Abstract

This paper aims at describing an historical and philosophical journey through the discussion about the role of Icons in Christianity from Late Antiquity to the 20th century: the main points of reference are the II Council of Nicaea (787) and the theological aesthetics proposed by Hans Urs von Balthasar. The sensitive world is rehabilitated in the eyes of theology, offering a methodological and gnoseological expansion which does not limit and stop itself at the boundaries posed by the rationality. The Icon, reenactment and communication of God in an affective and offering relationship, is that λόγος which has become σάρξ in the founding and fundamental event of the Incarnation.