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The '''Seventh Ecumenical Council''' took place in Nicaea [[Nicea]] in 787 AD, and is also known as the '''Second Council of Nicaea.''' The last of the seven [[Ecumenical Councils]] dealt with the [[icon]]s.

The iconoclasts had support from both inside and outside the Church. Outside the Church, there may have been influence from Jewish and Muslim ideas, and it is important to note that just prior to the iconoclast outbreak Muslim Caliph Yezid ordered the removal of all icons with his territory. Inside the Church there had always existed a "puritan" outlook which saw all images as latent idolatry. The iconoclasts "failed to take full account of the Incarnation" by refusing icons. Falling into a kind of dualism, they regarded all matter as defilement, thinking that what is spiritual must be non-material; therefore, they wanted a religion freed from all contact with material. But such a view betrays the Incarnation for it allows no place for Christ's humanity or His body, thus linking it with the other controversies about Christ's Person dealt with by the other Councils. The iconoclasts forgot that the soul and the body must be saved and transfigured.

Largely through the work of St. [[John of Damascus]] (AD 759c. 676-826749), who, ironically, was housed in Muslim-controlled lands and therefore outside the reach of the Empire, the iconodules' position won out. He addressed the charges of the iconoclasts thus:

The seventh and last Ecumenical Council upheld the icondulesiconodules' postion in AD 787. They proclaimed: ''Icons... are to be kept in churches and honored with the same relative veneration as is shown to other material symbols, such as the 'precious and life-giving [[Cross]]' and the Book of the Gospels.'' The 'doctrine of icons' is tied to the Orthodox teaching that all of God's creation is to be redeemed and glorified, both spiritual and material.

Some final thoughts on icons:==Commemoration == :The ''Icons... were dynamic manifestations of man's spiritual power to redeem creation through beauty and art. The colors and lines Holy Fathers of the [icons] were not meant to imitate nature; the artists aimed at demonstrating that men, animals, and plants, and the whole cosmos, could be rescued from their present state of degradation and restored to their proper 'Image'. The [icons] were pledges of the coming victory of a redeemed creation over the fallen one... the artistic perfection of an icon was not only a reflection of the celestial glory --it was a concrete example of matter restored to its original harmony and beauty, and serving as a vehicle of the Spirit. The icons were part of the transfigured cosmos'' Seventh Ecumenical Council'''—Nicolas Zernov (1898-1980)are commemorated in October, ''The Russians and Their Church''''' :''The icon is a song of triumph, and a revelation, and an enduring monument to on the victory [[Sunday of the saints and the disgrace Fathers of the demonsSeventh Ecumenical Council]].'' '''—St. John of Damascus'''