A comprehensive work on the theology of the icon, which has become a theological classic. Uspensky sets out the theology of the icon in historical order from early Christian art to our time, but this is precisely theology, not art criticism. Uspensky writes about the importance of the icon for Orthodoxy: “The Orthodox Church possesses an invaluable treasure not only in the field of worship and patristic works, but also in the field of church art. As you know, the veneration of holy icons plays a very important role in the Church; because an icon is something much more than just an image: it is not only a decoration of a temple or an illustration of the Holy Scripture: it is a complete correspondence to it, an object that is organically included in the liturgical life. This explains the importance that the Church attaches to the icon, that is, not to any image in general, but to the specific image that she herself developed during her history, in the struggle against paganism and heresies, the image for which she, during the iconoclastic period, paid the blood of a host of martyrs and confessors - to the Orthodox icon. In the icon, the Church sees not just any one aspect of Orthodox doctrine, but an expression of Orthodoxy as a whole, Orthodoxy as such. Therefore, it is impossible to understand or explain church art outside the Church and its life.”