For you are here in the habit of fastening upon us a very serious charge of impiety because we do not rear temples for the ceremonies of worship, do not set up statues and images of any god, do not build altars, do not offer the blood of creatures slain in sacrifices, incense, nor sacrificial meal, and finally, do not bring wine flowing in libations from sacred bowls ~ Arnobius, Against the Heathen, Book VI , c. 284-305 A.D.
For what reasonable man can refrain from smiling when he sees that one who has learned from philosophy such profound and noble sentiments about God or the gods,turns straightway to images and offers to them his prayers, or imagines that by gazing upon these material things he can ascend from the visible symbol to that which is spiritual and immaterial. But a Christian, even of the common people, is assured that every place forms part of the universe, and that the whole universe is God’s temple. – Origen, Contra Celsus, Book VI, Chapter XLIV
And let not Celsus be angry if we describe as lame and mutilated in soul those who run to the temples as to places having a real sacredness and who cannot see that no mere mechanical work of man can be truly sacred – Origen, Contra Celsus, Book VI, Chapter LII
We have strayed from the Immortal’s ways And worship with a dull and senseless mind Idols, the workmanship of our own hands, And images and figures of dead men. -Justin Martyr, speaking of the heathen ways or worship, . A.D. 150
Others of them employ outward marks … They style themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted and others formed from different kinds of material. They maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up alongwith the images of the philosophers of the world, such as Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honoring these images just like the Gentiles. -Irenaeus, Against Heresies, A.D. 183 – 186
For, in truth, an image is only dead matter shaped by the craftsman’s hand. But we have no sensible image of sensible matter, but an image that is perceived by the mind alone: God, who alone is truly God. -Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen IIII
But it is with a different kind of spell that art deludes you … it leads you to pay religious honor and worship to images and pictures. -Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen
He who prohibited the making of a graven image would never himself have made an image in the likeness of holy things [i.e., by creating an image of them here on earth]. Nor is there at all any composite thing or creature endowed with sensation [made by God here on earth] like those in heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, the wings are the lofty ministers and energies of powers right and left, and the voice is delightful glory in endless contemplation. -Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies V
Nor does she [the church] perform anything by means of angelic invocations(prayers to angels or saints), or by incantations, or by any other wicked curious art;but, directing her prayers to the Lord, who made all things, in a pure, sincere, and straightforward spirit, and calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, she has been accustomed to work miracles for the advantage of mankind, and not to lead them into error…thus is it, therefore, also His will that we, too, should offer a gift at the altar, frequently and without intermission. The altar, then, is in heaven (for towards that place are our prayers and oblations directed) -Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 2:32:5, 4:18:6
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