ICONOGRAFIA E ICONOLOGIA CARMELITANA

On September 27-29, 2018, the IV Conference of Carmelite Mariology, organized by both Carmelite families, was held at the Shrine of Mary Mother of the Church of Jaddico (BR). The initiative of such conventions has a history that started at this shrine in 2012 when the first conference about the more typically Carmelite Marian traits was celebrated there. This was followed by two conferences held in 2014 in Sassone (Rome) and in 2016 in Maddaloni (CE), each one with its own theme about  the Marian charism of the Carmelite Order, in a perspective of progressive specification. The theme of this IV Convention is of great interest and importance for several reasons. First of all, because the image, the icon, the representation of the sacred have always provoked a certain controversy in the history of religions. Faced with the abundance and exuberance of images of some religions, which we could define polytheistic, monotheism has tended to think that the divine is not, by definition, representable. God is above any human expression, any image, and even any notion. Therefore, when we represent God, the sacred, the divine, we risk to create idols that ultimately end up separating us from What we would like to represent. Second, the subject is fundamental because we live in a truly "iconic" age: we are immersed in the culture of the image. Modern information technology methods have relegated many traditional forms of communication to the background. The short, abbreviated message, sometimes reduced to images, is the most usual language among our youth. There is no doubt that theological reflection (catechetics, spirituality, missiology and even systematic theology) cannot avoid this topic and must reconsider the meaning and mission of the image in the transmission of faith. Neither religious life in general, nor Carmel in particular, can evade this much-needed reflection when considering its mission.