ETYM French idolâtrie, Late Lat. idolatria, Latin idololatria, from Greek; eidolon idol + latres service.
1. Religious zeal; willingness to serve God; SYN. devotion, veneration.
2. The worship of idols; the worship of images that are not God; SYN. idol worship.
In Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the turning away from God to other objects of religious devotion. In the Hebrew Bible it is specifically forbidden in the second of the Ten Commandments. Islam forbids the use of any pictures or other images of living beings, because of the danger of transferring admiration and wonder from God to the image or the artist.
Christianity has interpreted the command variously at different times and places. Some groups, notably in certain Protestant churches, avoid all images, while others, such as the Roman Catholic and Orthodox, encourage the use of pictures and statues as pointers, or icons, to God. The word idol is highly prejudicial to Hindus who practice arcana—the worship of an image of the deity —as an important element in their path of devotion.