According to this study of Russian Christian sects, the need for cultic image is determined not by specific teaching, that discriminates Christianity from other monotheistic traditions (iconicless Judaism and Islam), but by its reading by the Church institution. The reason why sectarians refused the icon was not giving up with the Church, but that, in their soteriological programms, there was no need for the image, niether as the subject of debate nor as the object of worship.