general audience Pope Benedict XVI referred to the reasoning used by John of Damascus who wrote: "In other ages God had not been represented in images, being incorporate and faceless. But since God has now been seen in the flesh, and lived among men, I represent that part of God which is visible. I do not venerate matter, but the Creator of matter" and stated that it forms part of the theological basis for the veneration of images. The use of significant representations of Jesus has continued among Catholics, e.g. with the 2008 parishioner funded 50 foot statue of Jesus in Mindanao, Philippines.CBCP News (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) March 28, 2008: "Divine Mercy Sunday in Mindanao" Notes References Bryer, Anthony & Herrin, Judith, eds., Iconoclasm, 1977, Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, Finney, Paul Corby, The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art, Oxford University Press, 1997, , 9780195113815 Freedberg, David, "The Structure of Byzantine and European Iconoclasm", in Bryer & Herrin above Goody, Jack, Representations and Contradictions: Ambivalence Towards Images, Theatre, Fiction, Relics and Sexuality, London, Blackwell Publishers, 1997. . Jensen, Robin Margaret, Understanding Early Christian Art, Routledge, 2000, , 9780415204545, google preview Kitzinger, Ernst, "The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 8, (1954), pp. 83–150, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, JSTOR Rudolph, Conrad, "La resistenza all'arte nell'Occidente," Arti e storia nel Medioevo, ed. Enrico Castelnuovo and Giuseppe Sergi, 4 v. (Giulio Einaudi Editore, Turin, 2002-2004) v. 3, p. 49-84 Schiller, Gertrud, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II, 1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, Toynbee, Jocelyn (J. M. C.), Review of Frühchristliche Sarkophage in Bild und Wort by T. Klauser, The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 58, Parts 1 and 2 (1968), pp. 294–296, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, JSTOR Christianity Censorship in Christianity Christian art Christian terminology