noun
definition
The belief in, participation in, or sanction of destroying religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives.
Examples of iconoclasm in a Sentence
And it is important to remark that the protagonists of iconoclasm in Byzantium came from these lands where image cult offended the deepest religious instincts of the masses.
This latter practice, hotly denounced as idolatry during the iconoclastic controversy (see Iconoclasm), was finally established as orthodox by the second general council of Nicaea (787), which restored the worship of images.
From the standpoint of the popular religion, the removal of the local altars, like Hezekiah's destruction of the brazen serpent, would be an act of desecration, an iconoclasm which can be partly appreciated from the sentiments of 2 Kings xviii.
He also opposed iconoclasm and checked the advancing Lombards.
But in spite of the severity with which the resolution was enforced, the resistance to iconoclasm continued, chiefly owing to the attitude of the monks, who exercised great influence over the common people.
We still have fundamentalist iconoclasm; for example, the Taliban.
Amongst them may be reckoned a translation by Mrs Lindner of an article by John Oxenford which appeared in the Westminster Review for April 1853, entitled "Iconoclasm in German Philosophy," being an outline of Schopenhauer's system.