Arvidsson, Bengt :
Images - conflict, usage, doctrine.
The problem of images in early Lutheran tradition of the sixteenth century, investigated from the viewpoint of the history of ideas.
The sixteenth century saw the publication of a comprehensive body of literature on the question of images, showing that this was one of the important theological issues during the century of the Reformation. Later theology has devoted scant attention to the subject. The dissertation seeks to survey the treatment of the subject in the history of theology and to outline important theological questions concerning images. The geographical focus of the material is the central Lutheran areas of Gemmany and to an extent Denmark; the chronological setting is primarily the Anhalt image controversy of 1596-97. Against this background the dissertation examines the Lutheran argumentation against Calvinism and the Lutheran defence of images. Important theologians in the study are Johann Arndt, Simon Gediccus, Abraham Taurer, Abraham Lange, and the Wittenberg theologians through their work Notwendige Antwort... The first three parts of the dissertation describe the historical background, as regards theology in particular, but also culture and art history. The chronological orientation from the end of the sixteenth century allows the depiction of a fully fledged Lutheran tradition, as well as the development which led to the content of this tradition's view of images. Of particular significance is the importance of the period in the history of the church. A Lutheran doctrine of images was shaped by the reissue of works like the Libri Carolini, the acts of the Paris synod of 825, the early fathers of the church, and by the publication of the Catalogus testium veritatis of Flacius, and the Magdeburg Centuries. The interest in Greek culture was also of significance. In their defence of images, the Lutheran theologians turned to the Roman Catholic and Grek Orthodox traditions on many points. The iconographical theology of the Greek Orthodox Church had come to the force in the latter half of the sixteent century as a result of the correspondence between the Patriach of Constantinople, Jeremias II, and the Tubingen theologians. St. John Damascene is cited by the Lutheran theologians towards the end of the century, and Damascene theology can be said to have influenced them. This Lutheran recourse to the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox traditions is connected to the feeling that the Calvinist reforms had gone too far and were paving the way for Islam. The disputes between Calvinists and Lutherans were provoked not only by differing interpretations of the ban on images, but also on more profound difference in theological structure. The sixteenth-century discusion of images also contains within it a general problem, which is treated in the last part of the dissertation under the following headings: picture and reality, picture as symbol, picture and word, categories of picture, the external church, and sacred and profane art. The Lutheran defence of images can be said to proceed from the multifaceted character of pictures. In addition, the incarnation is invoked as support for the use of pictures, and images are defended as a manifestation of an outward and visible church. Art, acording to the Lutheran theologians, is a gift of God, the purpose of which is to serve and to edify both everyday life and that of the church, where art serves as a means of grace. The sixteenth-century debate on images reflects a tension between, on the one hand, theological discussion of the ban on images, adiaphora, and hagiolatry, ud on the other hand, the indispensability of pictures in the mental development of mankind. The discussion concerns not only cultic pictures, but also the most profound dimension of spiritual thought and the prerequisites for being able to learn of and receive the divine revelation. In Christian tradition as such there is a defence of images, which was invoked and transmitted furher by the early Lutheran tradition. (Translated by Alan Crozier)