Cult image

In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. Cultus, the outward religious formulas of "cult" (meaning religious practice, as opposed to the pejorative term for a potentially dangerous "new religion"), often centers upon the treatment of cult images, which may be dressed, fed or paraded, etc. Religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts "cult image" specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple.

The term idol is often synonymous with cult image, but may be used especially of a cult image believed not just to depict or represent a deity or spirit, but in some sense to be one itself. Sometimes the image is believed to have its own powers, to grant wishes or otherwise affect the world. In cultures where idolatry is not viewed negatively, the word idol is not generally seen as pejorative, such as in Indian English.

Cult of images is the practice of worshipping or venerating religious or cult images representing divine figures. Common in a number of ancient religions, the practice continues most prominently today in Hinduism. The Abrahamic religions all specifically ban idols and idolatry; all have had internal divisions and disputes as to what constitutes the proper or improper use of images in religion, and many Abrahamic religious sects use or venerate images with varying degrees of fervor.

In general the belief that an image itself is the object of worship, and itself has or embodies a spirit with inherent powers, tends to be hard to verify when a religious context is examined closely, or to be held at a popular level but denied by the clergy of a religion. Assertions by others outside the religious group concerned that such beliefs are held by the group are however common.

Cult images were a common presence in Ancient Egypt, and still are in modern-day Kemetism. A common example of a cult image in ancient Egypt was the Apis Bull; famously derided in the Book of Exodus. The term is often confined to the relatively small images, typically in gold, that lived in the naos in the inner sanctuary of Egyptian temples dedicated to that god (except when taken on ceremonial outings, say to visit their spouse). These images usually showed the god in their sacred barque or boat; none of them survive.

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