In Catholic and Orthodox theology, veneration is a type of honor distinct from the Worship due to God alone. Church theologians have long adopted the terms Latria for the sacrificial worship due to God alone, and dulia for the veneration given to saints and icons. (Catholic theology also includes the term hyperdulia for the type of veneration specifically paid to Mary, mother of Jesus, in Catholic tradition.) This distinction is spelled out in the dogmatic conclusions of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (A.D. 787), which also decreed that Iconoclasm (forbidding icons and their veneration) is a Heresy that amounts to a denial of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
In some other religious traditions, veneration is considered to amount to the heresy of Idolatry, and the related practice of Canonization amounts to the heresy of Apotheosis. Protestant theology usually denies that any real distinction between veneration and Worship can be made, and claims that the practice of veneration distracts the Christian soul from its true object, the worship of God. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin writes that "(t)he distinction of what is called dulia and latria was invented for the very purpose of permitting divine honours to be paid to angels and dead men with apparent impunity." However, many Anglicans do venerate saints.
In the tradition of Green theology (or Creation-centered theology) animals, plants, and other parts of nature may be said to be venerated simply by taking good care of them, thereby showing honor and respect for God who made them. Creation, being regarded as an icon of the Creator, is a valid object of veneration.
Philologically, to venerate derives from the Latin Verb, venerari, meaning to regard with reverence and respect. This word derives from the same root as the name Venus, the goddess of love of the ancient Roman pantheon.