Icons and the Bible Message in the Past and Present: Origins, Meaning, and Global Dissemination of Icons as Windows to Heaven in the Byzantine Orthodox Tradition
Through a series of educational panels featuring leading scholars and clergy, this program aims to deepen public understanding of the spiritual and cultural significance of Byzantine icons. Throughout 2026, these discussions will illuminate the Orthodox tradition’s contributions to sacred art and foster appreciation for its historical and theological context.
This panel will address the origins of the icon as central to the history of Christianity and to the transmission of the message and teachings of the Bible. The panel will explore the deep wellsprings of iconography, or, the “writing of the Bible,” in the Byzantine Orthodox Christian experience. With historical analysis and illustrative examples, the panel will introduce the ways through which the breathtakingly beautiful tradition of Byzantine iconography has disseminated the Bible worldwide, through a sacred aesthetic that describes icons as a window to heaven. Drawing on their respective expertise in the nature and practice of Orthodox theology and the relationship between monastic practice and the visual arts in the Christian East, the scholars on this panel will introduce the crucial role of icons globally for understanding, apprehending, and living the biblical message.
This panel is the first in a series that is part of the icon exhibition, Revealing the Hidden: Byzantine Icons from Thessaloniki and Patmos, that will bring extraordinary icons to the museum from November 2026 through February 2027, from two holy, stavropegial monasteries of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki and the Monastery of St. John the Theologian on Patmos. This exhibition celebrates the 35th anniversary of the enthronement of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
Header image accreditation:
Icon of the Hospitality of Abraham, end of 15th century. © The Holy Monastery of Vlatadon, Thessaloniki—Hellenic Ministry of Culture/Ephorate of Antiquities of Thessaloniki City, 2026.
Apr 30, 2026 - Apr 30, 2026
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT
Scholars Initiative Conference Room, Floor 5R
General in Person $24.99
Members and Students in Person $19.99
General Virtual $14.99
Members and Students Virtual $9.99
Moderator
Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou (Boston College; Chestnut Hill, MA)
Elizabeth Prodromou is Professor of the Practice in the International Studies Program at Boston College and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. Her academic and practitioner work focus on the intersection of geopolitics, religion, and human rights, especially concentrating on the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. She served on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004–2012), and she works in various policy and NGO contexts on religious pluralism and peacebuilding. Her publications have appeared in journals such as The Review of Faith and International Affairs, Journal of Democracy, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Orbis. Some of her publications on Orthodox Christianity include co-edited volumes (Eastern Orthodox Christianity and American Higher Educations; and, forthcoming co-edited volume on Dissent, Power, and Christian Identity After Nicaea).
Speakers
Rev. Dr. Alexis Torrance (University of Notre Dame; South Bend, IN)
Alexis Torrance is the Archbishop Demetrios Associate Professor of Byzantine Theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2014. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology from the University of Oxford. He has held fellowships at Princeton University, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is currently the NEH Faculty Fellow in Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University. His publications include Repentance in Late Antiquity (Oxford University Press), Human Perfection in Byzantine Theology (Oxford University Press), and the co-edited volume Image as Theology (Brepols). Professor Torrance is a priest of the Archdiocese of Constantinople and serves as the Orthodox Co-Secretary for the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.
Dr. Rossitza B. Schroeder (St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary; Yonkers, NY)
Rossitza Schroeder is an associate professor of art history at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Her primary research interest is late Byzantine art and architecture, and more specifically the relationship between monastic practice and the visual arts. She has published extensively on monastic meditation, prayer and penance in Palaeologan churches in Constantinople, Mount Athos, Thessaloniki and Ohrid, and has also tackled issues in Italo-Byzantine-Ottoman connections as manifested in Gentile Bellini’s portrait of sultan Mehmed II. Schroeder is the co-editor of a volume entitled The Eloquence of Art, in honor of Henry Maguire, which was published by Routledge in 2020.