How an image differs from an idol
A sentence phrased wrong about the nature of symbolism would have broken all the best statues in Europe.
The Second Council of Nicaea (787) supplies a concrete comparison for the apparently minute distinction Chesterton defends. Its decree authorizes sacred images while distinguishing reverence for them from the worship owed to God alone; the honour reaches the person represented. The same decree connects pictorial representation with the reality of the Incarnation. Consulted here is Henry Percival's English translation in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, volume 14 (1900), as revised for New Advent, not the Greek acts themselves. Second Nicaea, Decree.
This clarifies why a theory of representation could have practical consequences for art. It does not establish Chesterton's sweeping counterfactual about every European masterpiece, or identify the council as his documented source. The relevant distinction protects particular religious uses of images; Chesterton expands it into an argument about the cultural freedom that doctrinal boundaries can sustain.
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