This present work of nine chapters portrays iconoclastic trends within Western Christianity from the early Middle Ages up to the time of the French Revolution. The primary intent of this work is an explanation of the important iconoclastic movements - their origins and their theoretical foundations and motives. Parallel to this, the book deals with the religious and theological justification of the iconographic cult and of the icon in sacred architecture both in the formal theological teachings of schools and universities and in the arena of popular pietism.
The areas of concentration are: iconographic controversy in the Carolingian Period, iconoclasm in the context of the Cistercian monastery reform, the icon in Franciscan thought, Reformation iconoclasm, the meaning of the icon in Tridentine Catholicism. Included in this is an in-depth interpretation of the religious iconography of numerous images and image cycles, including the principal works of Tintoretto and El Greco.