What Is the relationship between a sign and the thing it signifies?
Contemporary examples: a family picture, a wedding ring, a flag, a Bible, a signature, a souvenir, an icon
Historical setting: use of images, relics, shrines, etc. has increased among Christians through the mid-eighth century
Worries: Is this politically shrewd? Is it theologically correct?

What is the relationship in the case of God? (Ex. 20:4, Rom. 1:22-23, John 4:24)
Historical setting: Muslim Conquests in the Byzantine empire
Had earlier Jewish practice been superseded? How or why?

What is the relationship in the case of Jesus Christ? (John 1:1-18)
Historical setting: centuries of Christological controversies and councils define the debate
First-round challenge: Iconoclastic emperors seek to overturn Christian uses of images
Argument: Only the Eucharist is an authorized representation of Christ
Terms of debate: Icons are Arian or Docetic
First-round response: John of Damascus defends images
Argument: Incarnation changes God's relationship to creation
Second-round challenge: The Iconoclastic Synod of 754 forbids images (NPNF II.14 543-544)
Arguments: Icons are Nestorian or Eutychian
Second-round response: Theodore of Studium responds to the Iconoclastic Synod
Argument: images portray the person in whom the natures are united

What is the relationship in the case of Christians? (Rom. 8:28-30)
Examples: Mary, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and their relics
Challenge: images and relics conjure the dead
Response: The saints are in Christ; the Church is the Spirit's Temple; honoring believers honors Christ whose image they now bear

What is the relationship in the case of sacred objects? (1 Cor. 10:16)
Examples: Eucharist (?), the cross, the holy scriptures, images
Challenge: Such things must have the same essence as the originals
Responses:

Only in the case of the Father and the Son; otherwise, an analogy of participation
Veneration/honor (douleia, proskunêsis) is different from adoration (latreia)
The honor paid to the images passes to the prototype without confusing the two

Outcome: "The Triumph of Orthodoxy"
Nicea II, the Seventh Ecumenical Council, upholds holy images (NPNF II.14 549-551)
Lingering Issue: What are the rules that distinguish proper vs. improper uses of images?