Idols and Icons

“As our post-modern society becomes increasingly post-faith, our instincts to raise up entertainers as idols become more frequently indulged, and perhaps we manufacture more of these idols now,” writes Elizabeth Scalia in today’s “On the Square” article, An Idol Season . “Is there a nation that does not have a slew of ‘Idol-creating’ television shows, where celebrity magazines don’t cover the newsstands? Even our ‘serious’ newspapers carry pages of social or celebrity profiles.”

Some of these celebrities become icons, she notes, but that really means idols. Real icons do something radically different.