Theory of the Icon of Christos Yannaras

The article regards the phenomenon of the icon in the interpretation of Greek theologian and philosopher Christos Yannaras. His work Personality and Eros is taken as a basis, where the author describes this phenomenon, based on a thorough body of works of Orthodox thought.The icon is primarily considered not only as a model of reality, reflection or image of events and objects, or allegory-allegory; attention is focused on the icon as a category of cognition. The study traces the conditions of functioning of the iconological language, as well as its connection with apophatic and cataphatic theological thought. The specifics of the poetics of the iconological language are also revealed, aiming at both concealment and elucidation of the truth.An attempt is also made to transfer the theory of the icon to the anthropological plane, in accordance with the erotic gesture of self-denial. The focus is on the aesthetic component of the iconic perception not only of icons but also of other phenomena of art or the surrounding world. Thus, owing to the derivatives of the theory of the icon, the analysis of art in the anthropological plane is carried out.Possible types of reduction of the iconological language according to the function of the icon as a means of cognition are also revealed. In this regard, the significance of the so-called ‘theology of assimilation’ and its possible connection with the moralistic reduction in the interpretation of Ch. Yannaras are analyzed. On the other hand, aesthetic reduction is also described, which, in turn, has the ability to provoke iconoclastic resistance.Thus, the aim of the work is to study the phenomenon of the icon as a category of knowledge in the works of Ch. Yannaras, as well as to consider the icon and the iconological language in their connection with issues of the aesthetic and anthropological nature.