PAINTING GOD

Ian K

English Arts Visual Arts

Apple Podcasts Website RSS

Episodes 24

Avg. Duration 22m

Activity Dormant

Since May 2024

Latest Episode Oct 2025

Publishing Details

Schedule

Every 2 Weeks

Format

Episodic

Consistency

100%

Hosting

anchor.fm

About This Podcast

The podcast of the Arbor Vitae Icon Painting Academy, exploring the vast and mesmerising world of Byzantine iconography from a Catholic perspective. Ian is an Englishman, a professional icon painter, founder of the Bethlehem Icon School, and author of the Icon Painter's Handbook. He runs the Arbor Vitae Icon Academy from his current home in the Italian Alps. This podcast focuses on all things related to Byzantine iconography, from the spirituality through the theology to the nitty gritty of painting icons. Ian is a practising Roman Catholic, with a degree in theology from Oxford University

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Recent Episodes

S3E4 Icons and Catholics 4: Icons & statues - getting beyond Byzantium.

Oct 19, 2025 4m

Highlighting the diverse artistic expressions used in liturgical art, including icons, the discussion delves into the unique characteristics of Orthodox and Catholic liturgical art, noting the…

S3E3 Icons and the Catholic Church 3: Aesthetics meets Ascetics

Oct 12, 2025 7m

This exploration delves into the relationship between Catholic art and the sacred. Emphasising the theological significance of aesthetics in liturgical art, it highlights examples from medieval…

S3E2 Icons and the Catholic Church 2: Liminal Art that Serves the Altar

Oct 05, 2025 6m

Explore the true purpose of liturgical art. Discover how art should reveal Christ’s presence, inspire transcendence, and reignite sacred conversations within the Catholic faith.

S3E1 Catholics, icons and the loss of the numinous

Sep 28, 2025 7m

Icons are the art of the altar, there for a very specific purpose. Listen in as Matthew Shepherd and Ian Knowles explore how moving beyond naturalistic depictions can deepen your spiritual connection…

S1E21 Catholic confusion

Nov 15, 2024 12m

Catholicism 'does' art, but it often seems to find Byantine icons 'alien'. Some short introductory thoughts about why that might be the case.

Behold I make all things new! The story of a new icon

Oct 25, 2024 34m

A recent commission which I finished is an icon entitled Behold I make All Things New . This is an explanation of this new design... enjoy!

The first images of Jesus? A tantalising exploration of some exciting possibilities.

Oct 18, 2024 37m

What images of Jesus did the first Christians have? How did they depict him? Looking at some fragments of evidence I speculate on what images the first Christians had of Jesus and what he might…

S1E17 Icons are all about... Christology!

Oct 11, 2024 31m

The 7th Ecumenical Council wasn't so much about images per se but about Christology and the implications of who Jesus was for the way Christians worshipped. This episode is a bit of a tour de force…

S1E16 Episode 16: Icons: its all in a word.

Sep 20, 2024 41m

Early Christians had seven different words they could choose to describe a sacred image. They chose just one...

Icons, secularism and the Liturgy

Sep 06, 2024 38m

Icons belong to the liturgy, but the Catholic and Orthodox forms differ. Trying to find a way for a renewal of iconography is complicated both by these differences but also because of secularisation…

S1E14 Do Protestant objections to the veneration of images hold water?

Aug 23, 2024 23m

A short response to a few of the points raised by by Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) who serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai in this…

A live open question session based on the recent podcast series

Aug 17, 2024 59m

Orthodox icons in Catholic Churches...

Should you ever sign an icon? How to avoid the Kubrick - ooops Rupnik! - problem.

Aug 09, 2024 15m

Orthodox icons are rarely signed, but western liturgical art is often about the artist. This is a big difference between east and west, but many contemporary iconographers feel uncomfortable not…

The Genius of the Byzantine Icon

Aug 02, 2024 24m

The Byzantine icon is the 'gold medal' winner of liturgical art.

S1E9 Orthodox Church or Churches?

Jul 26, 2024 20m

The Catholic Church has a clear head and identity: the pope, with a single, vast organisation centred on the Vatican. But what about the Orthodox Church? Is it more accurate to say Orthodox Churches?…

Wipeout: Icons and the loss of the medieval mind

Jul 19, 2024 26m

The medieval mind was pushed aside with the rise of humanism with catestrophic conseqences for icons both east and west, which the recent renewal of iconography is finally challenging.

A medieval mindset

Jul 12, 2024 20m

Liturgical art is at home in the medieval mindset. Humanistic rationalism less so. Some thoughts on the issues we face when trying to understand what the authors of the 7th Ecumenical Council were…

S1E6 All about Theodore and how images work

Jul 04, 2024 22m

The iconoclast controversy produced two notable theologians, one of whom is St Theodore of the Studion monastery, who helped the Church to understand how images can avoid being idols and work…

What is a Byzantine icon? Clarifying some terms

Jun 28, 2024 21m

What do we mean by describing a painting as a Byzantine icon? Can icons be painted only in that style? Listen in for a clarification of some terms that can often seem very confusing!

S1E4 What makes an icon... a real icon?

Jun 14, 2024 34m

What does the Church deem essential for an image to be an icon? And why did the Byzantine Church need to re-invent iconography while the west did not? Explore these topics in this episode delving…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does PAINTING GOD have?

PAINTING GOD has published 24 episodes since May 2024, covering topics in Arts, Visual Arts.

Is PAINTING GOD still active?

PAINTING GOD is currently dormant with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 22m.