The council of Elvira: toward the question of iconoclastic tendencies in Christianity

Criticism of religious images, which takes place repeatedly throughout the history of Christianity and continues to this day, always turns to the history of the Church in order to find there some iconoclastic precedent. The discovery of such evidence, in the opinion of the opponents of images, should serve as a confirmation of the idea that the rejection of icons is not a recurring temptation for Christianity but an ancient tradition of the Church, which, for one reason or another, has been lost. Important significance among such iconoclastic evidence, in view of their proximity to the apostolic age and to Jesus Christ Himself, are facts from the life of the Church that date back to the era before the Ecumenical Councils. The most interesting evidence, from the point of view of canon law, is the 36th canon of the Council of Elvira, which speaks of the inadmissibility of the presence of images in the church. This article is an attempt to consider and determine to what extent this canon can be used as an argument in favour of the traditional anti-icon Christian worldview