Entrances and Barriers: Doors, the Iconostasis & Sacred Space from an Eastern Christian Perspective
"The Doors! The Doors! In wisdom let us attend!"
So cries the deacon at the mid-point of an Eastern Orthodox Christian ritual. The two central doors, called "The Royal Doors," in the iconostasis ("image-screen") dividing the sanctuary from the main body of the temple, are closed and latched, and the purple curtain behind them is drawn shut. Led by the cantors, the clergy and people begin to chant the Nicæano-Constantipolitan Creed: the summary of Orthodox Christian doctrine defined at the first Council of Nicæa (325 CE) and the first Council of Constantinople (381 CE), and translated into dozens of languages from its original Greek in subsequent centuries. The Liturgy then continues with the consecration of the bread and wine into the sacramental Body and Blood of Christ.
Persons of Western Christian or non-Christian background visiting an Eastern Orthodox Church for the first time are usually surprised by the presence of the iconostasis - large wall extending across the front of the sanctuary, often with three or more tiers of icons (painted or mosaic images of saints and sacred events). It has three doorways evenly spaced - the Royal Doors mentioned above and two deacons' doors - one on the left and another on the right - smaller doorways, generally with icons of archangels decorating their fronts.
In this paper I will trace the development of the motif of the "door" and "doorways" as both entrances and barriers to sacred space, within the context of the Judeo-Christian tradition. First I will examine some scriptural references from both the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament, followed by some consideration of viewpoints of early Christian writers on the understanding of the relationship between doorways and sacred space. This will be followed by a brief historical overview of the development of the iconostasis in Eastern Christian Churches, and how it is understood as both an entrance and a barrier to differing levels of sacred space. The essay will conclude with some analysis and reference to contemporary secondary sources concerned with theological meaning ascribed to ecclesiastical architecture. Throughout the paper, my intent will be to demonstrate that the development of the iconostasis as a "door" to the sacred is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of sacrality. Furthermore, I hope to show that the iconostasis offers an interesting subject of study from a "religious studies" point of view in its aspects of "history of religions," "religious thinking," "ritual studies," and "sociological" considerations with regard to the distinction between the "sacred roles" of the clergy and laity in the Eastern churches.
Scriptural Antecedents
Since the Eastern Orthodox Church holds the Judeo-Christian Bible in very high regard as a collection of ancient documents that is believed to reveal God's involvement in human history, beginning this study with a brief textual analysis of relevant scriptural passages may be helpful to gain some insight into the theological context used by Orthodox Christians to interpret the meaning of their architectural symbolism. In many ways, the Eastern Churches have consciously attempted to retain elements of Jewish Temple and synagogue worship in their ecclesiastical architecture and ritual patterns,[1] so consideration must be given to both Testaments of the Bible to get a complete picture of the Orthodox Christian religious perspective.
In the Hebrew Bible, we find numerous passages describing doors and doorways (and related ideas), particularly in relation to the construction of the tabernacle and temples. In the book of Exodus, for example, we read finely detailed descriptions of the requirements for the tabernacle curtains to "hide from view" the ark of the covenant:
You shall make a curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, which have hooks of gold and rest on four bases of silver. You shall hang the curtain under the clasps, and bring the ark of the covenant in there, within the curtain; and the curtain shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy (Ex. 26: 31-33 NRSV).
In this preceding passage we find "hanging doors," carefully crafted to be beautiful and evocative of heavenly imagery (the "cherubim," amongst the highest orders of the angels). The "most holy" place, being the location of the ark of the covenant with its "mercy seat" (Ex. 26:34), was understood to be a place where the glory of God dwelled. Only the highest-ranked priests could enter beyond the curtains, moving from the holy place with its table and lampstand (v. 35), to the presence of the deity beyond, shielded from outside view.
Even the doorway to the tabernacle, or "mobile temple," was designed with particular instructions: "a screen...of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen, embroidered with needlework" (v. 36). In the desert-dwelling nomadic society of early Israel, the people lived in simple tents, so visiting the "tent of God" must have been quite a different experience from the ordinary dwelling-place. From an early period in Israelite history, we can see that there are differing "levels" of sacrality: the "holy place" and the "most holy place," with distinctive rules of access.
The later permanent temples were designed to emulate this first mobile tabernacle. In the historical literature of the Hebrew Bible, we read that:
Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had designated (2 Ch 3:1)...he lined the house with gold - its beams, its thresholds, its walls, and its doors; and he carved cherubim on the walls (3:7)....And Solomon made the curtain (for the most holy place - ed.) of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and worked cherubim into it (3:14)...As for the entrance of the temple: the inner doors to the most holy place and the doors of the nave of the temple were of gold (4:22b).
The pre-exilic first temple became, for the people of Israel, a lasting symbol of their "golden era" kingdom period and their particular covenantal relationship with God. The post-exilic second temple was designed in a similar fashion in the Herodian era, but it is the Western Wall, the last remaining part of Solomon's great "house of the LORD," that remains the holiest site of pilgrimage for the Jewish people.
In the Christian New Testament, we read that "the curtain of the temple was torn in two" (Luke 23:45) in the immediate aftermath of Jesus' death on the cross. Luke's gospel, likely written after the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE, follows the standard early Christian belief that the Church was the "New Israel". The temple as a physical building of sacrifice was no longer needed as Jesus was viewed as the new "temple" and the perfect sacrifice that was understood to usher in a new covenant with God. This new belief is described in St. John's Gospel, decades after the fall of Jerusalem, in which Jesus is said to have caused a disturbance in the temple precincts by violently criticizing the sale of animals for the sacrifices:
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:19-22)
This mystical re-interpretation of the role of Jesus and his "fulfillment" of the Torah upon the cross is developed with various "door" motifs found in the New Testament writings (e.g., Hebrews 10:19,20). Luke quotes Jesus as saying, "try to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and not be able" (Luke 13:24) in discussing the path of salvation through him. In John's "theological" Gospel, we find Jesus quoted as identifying himself by saying "I am the gate for the sheep" (John 10:7) and "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (14:6). Clearly, for the early Christians, the concept of sacrality became less involved with place than with a mystical connection with Jesus, whom they believed to be the "Christ," or anointed Messiah of God.
Early Christian Writers and Sacrality
The earliest Christian writers of the generations immediately following the New Testament era, commonly called the "Apostolic Fathers," were concerned mainly with the development of the communal life of the early churches. One exception to this general "pastoral" orientation was The Shepherd of Hermas, an early second-century CE document containing a series of "visions" that develop a strong mystical theology. In the third vision, for instance, Hermas is shown a tower being constructed of stone blocks, some of which are rejected, and others sealed seamlessly into place at different levels. The female figure revealing the vision to Hermas explains that this tower is the "church," - and that the blocks are representative of individual Christians of various ranks and levels of holiness (the rejected blocks obviously represent those who were not so holy). This visionary "sacred space" still follows the Johannine project of seeing Christ and the Church from a "mystical"/person-oriented point of view rather than a place-oriented sacrality.[2] In other words, the emphasis of sacrality for the early church was on the sacrality of the individual believer, rather than on a particular sacred space.
In the early fourth century CE we begin to see the development of a concept of "sacred space" within the Christian churches. After the legalization of Christianity by Emperor Constantine, Christian communities began to grow, and were permitted to own property. Earlier Christians had generally worshipped in their homes.[3] At around this time a collection of documents, written mainly in Syria and Byzantium, were collated and attributed to apostolic authorship. These documents, called the "Apostolic Constitutions" (sometimes referred to as the didaskalion), lay out church orders for governance, morality, and worship, including worship space. In Book II, Chapter LVII of the "Apostolic Constitutions," we read that the church should be "like a great ship":
And first, let the building be long, with its head to the east, with its vestries on both sides at the east end, and so it will be like a ship. In the middle let the bishop's throne be placed, and on each side of him let the presbytery sit down; and let the deacons stand near at hand, in close and small girt garments, for they are like the mariners and managers of the ship: with regard to these, let the laity sit on the other side, with all quietness and good order. And let the women sit by themselves, they also keeping silence. In the middle, let the reader stand upon some high place: let him read the books...[4]
Interestingly, to this day the main body of a church building is generally called the "nave" (Latin, "ship"). At the end of this chapter, we read: "let the door be watched, lest any unbeliever, or one not yet initiated, come in." There was even an order of "porters" or "doorkeepers" ordained precisely for this task - to keep the unbaptized from entering during the Eucharistic meal. The doors to these "ships," then, were entrances for the clergy and laity, but barriers for non-members, creating an early division between the "sacred" and "profane" in Christian thinking about space. With the gradual establishment of Christian communities as building-oriented religious assemblies, the understanding of the Church as "triumphant" and "mystical," found in the Johannine corpus and The Shepherd of Hermas, began to be transformed so that the word "Church" (Greek, "gathering") referred equally to the building in which a community worshipped as much as it did the community itself.
This "structurally-oriented" type of thinking about sacrality was not really new, of course, because the temple and synagogue worship-spaces of Judaism had formed early Christian ritual expressions. Legally freed now to acquire communal property as held by Jewish and pagan communities for centuries, the fourth-century churches looked immediately to their Jewish heritage for ideas in construction and usage of space. Despite the strong anti-Jewish bias of Christian authorities in this period, their appropriation of the Hebrew Bible (as the "New Israel") permitted them to emulate the religious practices of the ancient people of Israel while at the same time despising their Jewish contemporaries for failing to agree with their understanding of the person and role of Jesus. Ironically, then, the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the New Testament authors, as revealed in their movement from a sacrality of place to a person-based sacrality, was reversed by the fortunes of history in the wake of Constantine's famous "conversion" at the Milvian bridge.
The Development of the Iconostasis
It is clear from textual and archæological evidence that in the earliest churches there were no physical separations between the "sanctuary" (or altar space where the Eucharist was celebrated) and the "nave," or area for the laity to worship. In house churches, the layout varied according to the local space and the needs of the people. Early constructed churches had free-standing altar tables in the center of the churches, or at the East end, that were clearly visible to the people. In some churches in both the East and West, rails were constructed around the altars to keep animals out, since many church buildings were used to house farm animals during violent weather. These rails evolved into "chancel rails" in the Western churches.
In the Christian East, where ecclesiastical art was becoming a dominant force in the life of the church, waist-high barriers were constructed that were decorated with icons (sacred images of saints or holy events) painted, engraved, or fashioned in mosaic. There was no iconostasis in the Great Church of Holy Wisdom ("Hagia Sophia") in Constantinople, the largest Christian edifice of the first millenium CE that was constructed in the sixth century under Justinian. In subsequent centuries, though, with the ongoing development of Eastern Christian art and complex ritual, the sacrality of the "sanctuary," or altar area, became increasingly emphasized. Only (male) clergy could enter this area, and church architecture began to develop in such a way to distance the laity (non-ordained Christians) from the "holy" precincts. The passages in the Hebrew Bible concerning the design and ritual laws of the tabernacle and the temples were used to justify this change. Just as in ancient Israel, differing levels of the "sacred" were understood to exist in relation to space and place. For example, the nave was consecrated space, but the sanctuary was viewed as being especially sacred.
The increasing cultural and theological distancing of the Christian East and West is revealed historically in the different developments in church architecture during this period. While both Eastern and Western churches were designed to emphasize the particular and privileged sacrality of the sanctuary space by distancing (and even hiding from view) the altar area; the tendency in the East was to attempt to reveal a mystical cosmology in this division of the worship space. The arrangement of icons on the iconostasis became gradually standardized to reflect an ordered view of the church "triumphant," i.e., the heavenly realm of the created order that awaits the parousia, or "second coming of Christ," at which point the heavenly and earthly realms will be reunited (having been sundered at the "Fall" of Adam and Eve). This particular vision of a heavenly and earthly reunification at the eschaton (the end of ordinary time and beginning of the promised new eternity) is drawn from the visions of St. John in the book of Revelation (chapter 21), of the heavenly city of Jerusalem coming down from heaven to the "new earth". The iconostasis, then, functions as a reminder of the promise of the second coming of Christ, and as a focal point of the hope that that second coming brings to the persecuted church.
The role of the icon in the worship of the Eastern church evolved from an early primarily didactic purpose in a mostly illiterate society (a "Bible picture-book," so to speak) to an increasing mystical role in meditative prayer. The iconoclastic controversies of the seventh to ninth centuries further polarized popular theological opinion on the proper usage and value of sacred images. The iconoclasts (icon-smashers) argued that the sacred images violated Hebrew Bible injunctions against the worship of graven images. Iconodules (icon-venerators) passionately believed that there was a distinction between worship, due to God alone, and veneration, which could be given to a loved one or sacred object without being idolatrous. The Seventh Ecumenical Council (II Nicæa 787 CE) called by Empress Irene to resolve the hostile conflict, determined doctrinally that "veneration paid to an icon passes on to its prototype (person or divinity displayed)." In 843 CE, another Byzantine empress-regent, Theodora, finally settled the stubborn ongoing dispute by issuing a decree upholding the definition argued for at the Seventh Council. The issuance of this decree became celebrated as "the Triumph of Orthodoxy," and is celebrated as a key festival on the first Sunday of the penitential Season of Lent (the forty days preceding Pascha/Easter) every year. With the triumph of the iconodule party, Eastern Churches began to increase their production and ownership of icons as a matter of fidelity to doctrine as well as local pride. The development of the iconostasis was a natural result of this movement.
Each iconostasis has a minimum of four principal icons: the icon of Christ (on the right side of the Royal Doors), the icon of the Theotokos ("birth-giver of God," Jesus' mother Mary) on the left side of the Royal Doors, the icon of the Forerunner of Christ (John the Baptist) to the right of the Christ icon, and the icon of the local patron saint or event (for which the local church is named) to the left of the Mary icon. Generally speaking, there are also icons of archangels (notably Michael and Gabriel) on the two deacons' doors, although in smaller churches sometimes the last two principal icons are on those doors. On the Royal Doors there are usually small icons of the four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). There is often an icon of the Mystical Supper (the "Last Supper" of Jesus with his disciples, at which the Eucharist is believed to have been established) suspended above the Royal Doors. Often the iconostasis will have a carved or metallic cross at its central apex.[5]
In some churches and monastic chapels that have been particularly well-endowed financially by benefactors, the iconostasis can sometimes be found to have a up to four or five more tiers of images above the principal wall. Traditionally, these tiers would contain in order:
- Icons of the second tier above the "Sovereign Row" of principal images would include a depiction of important events as observed on the Church Calendar, hence this tier being referred to as the "Festival Row". Alternatively, the second row might contain images from the lives of Jesus and Mary, with a large central icon of Christ enthroned in glory. This row would then be called the "deesis" row (referring to the divinity of Christ as taught by the Church Councils).
- Icons of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth tiers, where present, might include images of the Church Fathers, as well as Older Testament images (a "Prophets' Row" and a "Patriarchs' Row" that would be interchangeable).[6]
While there will be numerous icons scattered around the other walls of the nave of the church, the iconostasis is always the central focus of the sacred space.
When the Royal Doors of the iconostasis are open, as they are for much of the Divine Liturgy (and always left open for the entire Liturgy during the Paschal/Easter season during which the Resurrection of Christ is celebrated), the altar is visible. It is free-standing, square in shape, with a cross and "fans" (poles with large round medallions on the top, one on each side of the cross, upon which there are images of cherubim) behind it. On the wall and apse behind the altar is generally painted an icon of the Theotokos with a circular icon of Christ in her heart. Against this wall behind the altar is a throne for the bishop, when he is present. The rest of the sanctuary, which contains other tables and items, is generally not visible to persons in the nave. Only ordained clergy or laymen specially blessed to serve may go behind the altar, and only a priest or bishop may ever walk through the Royal Doors. In some women's monastic communities, a post-menopausal[7] nun may be dedicated to go behind the altar to clean the sanctuary, and to cense the offerings and icons with incense in the absence of a deacon or acolyte.
The access restrictions placed on the sanctuary are revealed in the ritual of the church. Not only is the sacrament of the Eucharist celebrated behind the iconostasis, but newly-baptized infants are dedicated before the Royal Doors (male infants are carried by the priest around the altar, with the thought that the children might one day become priests themselves). Couples are married before the Royal Doors, deceased bodies are blessed and committed at the Royal Doors - the "doors to paradise" understood to be a meeting place between the heavenly and earthly realms. The icons are frequently called "windows to heaven," meaning that the persons depicted are believed to be mystically present in the church; so that the entire "wall" of the iconostasis in fact becomes a point of contact with the mystical theophany for the people present.
Secondary Sources
A survey of contemporary religious studies literature reveals a paucity of research and scholarship in the area of Eastern Orthodox Christian studies, particularly on the subject of the understanding and usage of sacred space. Some noted Western theologians, particularly liturgiologists, have published works describing the format and usage of early Eastern Christian churches. The respected church historian of liturgy, Frank C. Senn, in his tome Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical, has this to say:
Portrayals of biblical scenes, stories, and personages could serve a teaching purpose for the illiterate. More than mere visual aids, icons of Christ and the saints were windows to eternity. Most pictures in the church buildings were stone or glass mosaics that yielded bright and deep colors, and lent the interior of the church an appearance of solemn splendor that gave the impression of heaven and earth.[8]
Senn's historical analysis also usefully points out that many early Christian churches were converted Roman basilicas that had formerly been dedicated to the "imperial cult" of emperor-worship. Senn says,
We should note that the apse of many secular basilicas contained a statue to the emperor, so that the icon of Christ the Pantocrator replaced it. We should also note that emperor worship made the place of the emperor's image a sacred place, so it is not surprising that the apse end of the church building continued to have an aura of sacrality about it.[9]
It is valuable to note that with the influx of many former "pagans" into Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries CE after Constantine's "conversion" made the church "fashionable"; subsequently, many secular/"pagan" understandings of sacred space would unavoidably be adopted by the rapidly burgeoning and somewhat syncretistic Christian communities of the later Roman period.
Edward Foley, a renowned historian of liturgy and church architecture, in his book From Age to Age: How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist, gives an interesting overview of the development of ecclesiastical architecture in East and West. While both Eastern and Western churches did adopt the "basilica" model, many Eastern churches also retained a "centralized" floor plan wherein the church was built in a round fashion (rather than rectangular), with a focus on the altar area.[10] This tradition in architecture was shown most magnificently in the "centralized" plan of Hagia Sophia, which has been emulated in Orthodox Churches ever since. Nevertheless, the developments of the iconstasis increasingly made the action of the ritual seem distant and mysterious, much as what was occurring in the long cathedrals of Western Christendom. This distancing of the people from direct contact with certain actions of the ritual had two consequences: it made the ritual seem more transcendent than it had likely been perceived in the early Christian communities, and it fostered a more individualist piety during liturgy, rather than a direct sense of participation in the sacramental activities. The idea of the sacred was maximized to the point that by the fifteenth century the laity began to feel removed from the priesthood in having direct access to earthly manifestations of the divine. The liturgy remained meaningful at a deeply spiritual level for the faithful, but ignorance of the actual actions of the clergy behind the iconostasis led to many unfortunate superstitions and misconceptions on the part of the laity.
Recent developments in Orthodox Christians circles have moved back to earlier models of the iconostasis. Many new parish buildings are constructing waist-level iconostases, or even partially-transparent iconostases with open arches instead of doors. There is an attempt on the part of many church authorities to permit the laity to regain a closer connection with the Mysteries, while at the same time seeking not to diminish the perceived sacrality of those Mysteries for the Christian people.
Conclusion
Early in the history of the people of Israel the concept of sacred space was institutionalized in the tabernacle and temples. The early Christian church, in reaction to its perceived rejection by the Jewish authorities, developed a mystical and allegorical understanding of sacrality as focussed on the person and role of Jesus, called the "Christ" and "Son of God". As the church became institutionalized in Græco-Roman society, the concept of sacred space in terms of worship facilities was gradually restored to Christianity, and earlier Jewish models of "separation" between the sacred and the profane were adopted. These separative apparati, or "doors" to the sacred, evolved in the East to become the iconostasis: a screen or wall separating the "holy of holies" from the "holy place" of the larger nave. The Royal Doors and deacons' doors became both entrances (for the clergy into the sanctuary, and for the presence of God believed to exist in the Eucharist into the nave) and barriers for the common people from direct access to the "meeting point" of the heavenly and earthly realms of the Christian cosmogony. The door, then, is a threshold for sacrality: a mysterious, bidding, and forbidding object, depending on the perspective of the perceiver.
Endnotes
[1]. For a visual description of the canonical prescriptions for Orthodox Temple design, see The Rudder of the Orthodox Catholic Church: The Compilation of the Holy Canons by Saints Nicodemus and Agapius (1800, translated 1908 by D. Cummings, republished 1957, 1983). Chicago: Orthodox Christian Educational Society, pp. 1008-9.
For a historical comparison of the relationship between Jewish Temple and Synagogue worship and Eastern Christian worship, see my unpublished manuscript: Baptism - East & West (1999). Available upon request.
[2]. The Shepherd of Hermas: "Vision Third - Concerning the Building of the Triumphant Church, and the Various Classes of Reprobate Men" in the series Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol II - "Fathers of the Second Century". Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds. (1867) American reprint of the Edinburgh edition revised and chronologically arranged, with brief prefaces and occasional notes by A. Cleveland Coxe. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. Available on-line at the Christian Classics Ethereral Library, maintained by Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI (1999). URL: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-02/TOC.htm
[3]. The earliest known building entirely dedicated to Christian worship has been excavated at Duro-Europos in eastern Syria, and is dated around 232 CE Cf. Foley, 1991: 28.
[4]. Ibid. "Apostolic Constitutions". URL: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-07/anf07-41.htm#P5323_1937285
[5]. A good historical introduction to the iconostasis can be found at the Catholic Encyclopedia Website, in an article by Andrew J. Shipman (1910). URL: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07626a.htm
Another good site for further information contains a brief descriptive article by Alexander Boguslawski (1998-2000) entitled "Iconostasis". URL: http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/iconost.html
An on-line scholarly summary researched by Justin P. Leous of the history and artistic format of the iconostasis can be found at Allegheny College's "Iconostasis Page".
URL: http://hulmer.allegheny.edu/icnstsis.html
[6]. Ibid. Boguslawski.
[7]. This strange-sounding requirement is based in Hebrew Bible references to a woman being ritually "unclean" during her menses.
[8]. Frank C. Senn, Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (1997) Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 165.
[9]. Ibid.
[10]. Edward Foley, From Age to Age: How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist (1991) Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 45-48.
Bibliography
(For internet resources used, please refer to footnotes in the text)
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible - Completely Revised and Enlarged. "New Revised Standard Version" (1991, 1994). Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy, eds. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Rudder of the Orthodox Catholic Church: The Compilation of the Holy Canons by Saints Nicodemus and Agapius (1800). Trans. D. Cummings (1908). Republished (1957, 1983) Chicago: Orthodox Christian Educational Society.
Frank C. Senn, Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (1997) Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Edward Foley, From Age to Age: How Christians Have Celebrated the Eucharist (1991) Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications.