Byzantine Iconoclasm
Veneration of icons through "proskynesis" was codified in 787 AD by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. This was triggered by the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy that followed raging Christian-Muslim wars and a period of iconoclasm in West Asia. The defense of images and the role of the Syrian scholar John of Damascus was pivotal during this period. The Eastern Orthodox church has ever since celebrated the use of icons and images. Eastern-rite Catholics also accepts icons in their Divine Liturgy.