Icons of the Father?

I recently had a conversation with a friend regarding whether iconography depicting the Father is orthodox. My answer was a simple “no.” However, in further discussion, the famous Rublev Holy Trinity icon was brought up—an icon conceded by all to be orthodox. So what gives? Can we depict the Father or not? What about the Holy Spirit? Where do we draw the line?

In seeking to answer this, I wish to center my argument on the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The incarnation stands at the heart of what determines whether an image is orthodox. In the case of Rublev’s Holy Trinity, no direct depiction of the Trinity is made beyond the symbolic representation of the three angels who visited Abraham. The Trinity is known in this image not by portraying the invisible and mysterious, but by depicting what has been revealed to man. This distinction is crucial in determining the orthodoxy of an icon.

Jesus Christ is the heart of God’s revelation to man—the image of the invisible God. He makes it possible to see the face of God, which was once impossible. Thus, to see Christ is to see the Father—as our Lord himself states. This understanding should inform our view of iconography. For example, if one wishes to depict God creating the cosmos, the icon should portray Christ standing above the created order. Christ cannot be separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is the doctrine of perichoresis—the mutual indwelling of the divine persons. The Father indwells the Spirit and the Son; the Son indwells the Spirit and the Father; and the Spirit indwells the Son and the Father. This mutual indwelling does not blur the personhood of each, but emphasizes that they are homoousia (of the same substance). Therefore, to look upon an icon of Christ is to look upon the Holy Trinity.

The heresy, then, is not in depicting the Father but in attempting to depict the Father apart from Christ, who alone reveals both Him and the Holy Spirit in visible form. Therefore, those who have portrayed the Triune God as Christ, a dove, and an old man with a white beard fall into error. By distinguishing the persons physically, they undermine the uniqueness of Christ’s incarnation, place physical and spacial limits on God, and posit the Father as an incarnate person too. In doing so, Christ is no longer the way to the Father. Instead, He is reduced to one god among others, standing in physical proximity to another deity called “the Father,” whom people can approach directly through the image rather than Christ alone. This diminishes the Christian claim to monotheism and reduces the immutable God to the anthropomorphic deities of paganism.

For Christianity to maintain its integrity and truth, our iconography must reflect our catholic confession of one God, revealed in Christ:

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).

This verse establishes the boundaries of depicting the Holy Trinity. The Father can be depicted, but only through the Son, who makes Him known. Therefore, Beatific Vision will not consist of Christ, the Father, and the Spirit sitting as three incarnate individuals upon thrones. Rather, it will be Christ, in whom we live and move and have our being. We will not lack anything by not seeing the Father or Spirit in a visible form, because in Christ we do see them. For in seeing the risen Christ, through our perfected participation in Him, we will also see the Father and the Spirit. Anything else would be a denial of our confession to believe in “one God.”

In conclusion, in order for iconography to be orthodox, these truths must be confessed within them. When we behold Christ Pantocrator, gazing upon us with both love and divine authority, we are looking upon the God-man, the image of the invisible God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This should satisfy our deepest desires and make all impulses toward vain depictions of the Trinity incomprehensible. If we feel we lack something by not seeing the Father as incarnate, it is because we do not yet love or understand the incarnation deeply enough.

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Works Cited:

The Holy Bible. English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, 2016.