Mere Iconography

Drawing on the rich visual wisdom of Christian art history, Mere Iconography distills twelve unified principles from across Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions to help us discern which images merit our attention and why.

We live in an age of visual chaos. Screens compete for every glance, algorithms flood our feeds with an endless stream of images, and our capacity for sustained attention diminishes by the day. This book offers a spiritually grounded, practical antidote for seeing well in a world engineered for distraction.

In the same way that C. S. Lewis spoke of a "mere" Christianity, Matthew J. Milliner recovers how Christians across traditions have thought carefully about images. Art history, Milliner argues, is a spiritual resource that can help us sort through the visual flood that engulfs us in order to see a way forward.

What youll find in Mere Iconography:

Reframes the problem of digital overload as a spiritual crisis requiring spiritual resources, not simply screen-time limits or digital detox strategies Demonstrates the historical shared ground of the three major Christian traditions to present a unified visual framework for all Christians Engages art history for formation, leading readers into the deep dimensions of Christianity through images Makes scholarly insight accessible for both personal bookshelves and classrooms

Mere Iconography replaces overwhelm with a plan of action and digital despair with hope, ideal for Christians seeking to recover a more intentional, discerning way of inhabiting our image-saturated world. A screen-free life may be impossible in our day, but the weighty images of Christian iconography can enable us to survive our digital age intact.