A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany by Bridget Heal (review)

We all know the importance that Lutherans place on the Word. But many American Lutherans are unaware of the rich visual and artistic culture which developed among European Lutherans following the Reformation and reached its apex in the Lutheran Baroque. This volume traces the history of Lutheran visual culture as it is intertwined with both theology and piety centered in Saxony, the heartland of the Reformation, and Brandenburg, from the time of the Reformation until approximately 1750. Naturally, art historians will be drawn to this volume, but, surprisingly, anyone interested in the history of Lutheran orthodoxy will also find this volume to be helpful, since it traces visual imaging whether through print, altars, or paintings when Orthodoxy was at its height.

Heal notes that Lutheran confessional culture was shaped by all members of the community, not only theologians and pastors, but also princes and nobles, and the common people (5). Martin Luther saw images as adiaphoral. They are not to be worshiped, but they can be helpful in instructing the literate. While Luther highlights the Word, and favors the ear over the eye as the sense organ which most helps people come to God, he does so not apart from its sacramental tangibility. It is this latter feature which guarantees the survival of a visual culture in the church. Among Lutherans, such images assist peoples' devotion. In contrast, Calvinism rejected them as "graven images," even though it valued art in secular life.

Luther's view is intertwined with his theological anthropology. Luther said that humankind thinks not primarily through abstract thoughts, but instead through images in the soul (20). For Luther, it is the heart, which includes the soul, mind, will, and emotions, which defines the human (21). Of course, for Luther, faith is aroused through the Word and so God has established primarily a "hearing kingdom," not one of sight (22). Even so, Luther does not dismiss sight since faith needs to be "graspable" or "tangible" (22). Hence, the Lutheran movement seeks a path between Roman Catholic idolatry and Calvinism iconoclasm.

Attempting to embody this mediating position, Cranach the Elder altered iconography with a simpler style, and by giving prominence to inscriptions in religious paintings, in order to reduce any verisimilitude of the image and so protect Lutherans from Roman Catholic idolatry (8). In spite of Cranach's artistic directions, it is impossible to establish any distinctive Lutheran aesthetic since many Lutheran congregations retained late-medieval paintings and statues (44). Matthias Flacius alone challenged the practice of retaining carved image on altars because, in response to the Augsburg Interim, he maintained that no compromises with Catholicism should be allowed. For Flacius there can be no adiaphora when the church is under siege (52, 95).

Various congregations responded differently to their late-medieval images. Wittenberg's St. Mary's replaced them with images from Cranach's workshop, while other communities, such as the town of Annaberg, retained pre-Reformation images (72). That pre-Reformation images were retained in some congregations is due to several factors, but often as not they were retained for political reasons, to honor the patronage of various families (188). All in all, such retention of pre-Reformation images was more prominent in Saxony than in Brandenburg, where in 1613 the ruling elite of court became Reformed. The rulers' attempt in 1615 to strip the Berlin Cathedral of its images led to rioting among the Lutheran populace. When in 1655 the rulers succeeded in stripping the altar of the Berlin Cathedral the images were not destroyed but simply transferred to other congregations.

Among Lutherans, those pushing for a strong affective pole to faith, such as Johann Arndt, especially defended images, asserting that when believers see Christ in literature or art, the image of Christ is formed in their hearts (124). Unlike Lucas Cranach the Elder, Arndt had no hesitation with harnessing visual propaganda in the service of piety (156). Given the fact that Lutherans did...