The Idolatrous Self and the Eikon: The Possibility of True Worship

Barth’s account of idolatry locates the generative problem of the idol not in the object that is worshipped, but in the idolatrous subject, the human being who misidentifies the object as divine. The status of the thing as “idol” is real, as is its participation in the reality of sin, but Barth’s concept of evil as das Nichtige, and his refusal to elevate it by a misguided reification, require him to identify the subjective activity of the idolater as the defining problem. Having traced the elements of this in Barth, this essay will consider how a subject-centred approach to idolatry makes sense of Paul’s account of sin and salvation and how his identification of Christ as the true eikon of God can be seen to have soteriological force in light of this. This last observation affirms the possibility of true worship for those who behold the eikon, with a real noetic transformation associated with this. This affirmation arguably demands that we move to a position marked by greater optimism and less caution about the reality of transformation in the life of the believer than is true of Barth.