Lutheran Churches in Early Modern Europe

Andrew Spicer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780754665830
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351921169
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

Until recently the impact of the Lutheran Reformation has been largely regarded in political and socio-economic terms, yet for most people it was not the abstract theological debates that had the greatest impact upon their lives, but what they saw in their parish churches every Sunday. This collection of essays provides a coherent and interdisciplinary investigation of the impact that the Lutheran Reformation had on the appearance, architecture and arrangement of early modern churches. Drawing upon recent research being undertaken by leading art historians and historians on Lutheran places of worship, the volume emphasises often surprising levels of continuity, reflecting the survival of Catholic fixtures, fittings and altarpieces, and exploring how these could be remodelled in order to conform with the tenets of Lutheran belief. The volume not only addresses Lutheran art but also the way in which the architecture of their churches reflected the importance of preaching and the administration of the sacraments. Furthermore the collection is committed to extending these discussions beyond a purely German context, and to look at churches not only within the Holy Roman Empire, but also in Scandinavia, the Baltic States as well as towns dominated by Saxon communities in areas such as in Hungary and Transylvania. By focusing on ecclesiastical 'material culture' the collection helps to place the art and architecture of Lutheran places of worship into the historical, political and theological context of early modern Europe.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Lutheran Churches and Confessional Identity
• 2 Early Modern Lutheran Churches: Redefining the Boundaries of the Holy and the Profane
• 3 Lutheran Churches and Confessional Competition in Augsburg
• 4 Epitaphs in Dialogue with Sacred Space: Post-Reformation Furnishings in the Parish Churches of St Nikolai and St Marien in Berlin
• 5 Framing the Sacred: Lutheran Church Furnishings in the Holy Roman Empire
• 6 Marian Imagery and its Function in the Lutheran Churches of Early Modern Transylvania
• 7 ‘On Sundays for the laity … we allow mass vestments, altars and candles to remain’: The Role of Pre-Reformation Ecclesiastical Vestments in the Formation of Confessional, Corporate and ‘National’ Identities
• 8 The Material Presence of Music in Church: The Hanseatic City of Lübeck
• 9 Lutheran Theology and Artistic Media: Responses to the Theological Discourse on the Visual Arts
• 10 Re-forming the Confessional Space: Early Lutheran Churches in Denmark, c.1536–1660
• 11 State Church and Church State: Churches and their Interiors in Post-Reformation Norway, 1537–1705
• 12 Church Furnishings and Rituals in a Swedish Provincial Cathedral from 1527 to c.1660
• 13 ‘Das “Geistliche Gebäwde” der Kirche’: The Lutheran Church in Early Modern Estonia as a Meeting Place of Theological, Social and Artistic Ideas
• 14 Lutherans in Cracow – Contesting the Sacred Topography
• 15 Lutheran Churches in Poland
• 16 ‘Hic coeli porta est, hic domus ecce dei’: Lutheran Churches in the Dutch World, c.1566–1719
• Afterword
• Index