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Who had his own personal opinions. It doesn't make him "no less than a Protestant authority".

As an Episcopalian who was much Catholic, and as an architect he can easily be charged with bias in his views on Protestant aversion to outward material display of faith. But which one could charge Moses and the Jews with if one was looking for a reason to denigrate them, while the NT can only be seen to allow art by the absence of censure of it, seeing the Greeks abounded with it.

But Luther certainly loved music and is attributed with being behind a positive enhancement in that area, while aversion to art is best seen as based on theological Scriptural basis, and an over reaction against paganism Rome often incorporated, and her unScriptural ostentatious displays.

In any case, if this is meant to impugn evangelicals who are Rome's greatest enemy (for despite being the most conservative, they actually threaten Rome's coveted preeminence and predominance, versus liberals), it hardly is worth much, as by making Scripture supreme then they can reject both Catholic holdovers of the incomplete Reformation, as well as overreactions of it.

Another Protestant presents a more scholarly and balanced view i think.

The art and music of the Reformation rejected the Catholic and Renaissance forms because the movement was theological at its root. Reformation forms were theocentric, placing their emphasis on God as He is, and His works as they really are. There was an abrupt cease to the portrayal of biblical themes with theatrical flair among Reformation painters, and a turn to realism resulting from the artist's private interpretation of Scripture. Musicians and artists of the Reformation sought to portray man as being in need of God's grace because of sin, thus they sang about passing from death to life and painted themes of redemption and hope through a very human, as well as divine, Christ. Rather than attempting to idealize the cre- ation of God, the Person of Jesus, the obedient of Scripture, or the crucifixion of Christ, artists inspired by the theology of the Reformation were eager to be true to the world, to mankind, and to God.

Rookmaaker wrote that the artists of the Reformation, especially Dutch art- ists, "Painted life and the world realistically, without idealizing or glorifying the creature but, instead, showing things as they really were and are, not glossing over sin but not exalting it either .... "8 Francis Schaeffer stated, "At its core, therefore, the Reformation was the removing of the humanistic distortions which had entered the church" (emphasis original).9 Gene Veith maintained that in Reformation art, "There are still some religious pichlres-madonnas, nativities, and crucifixions, but they are strikingly different from those of the Middle Ages; the gold leaf is gone."IO In the spirit of the Reformation, artists and musicians were not attempting to instruct the laity through their work as those of the Catholic church, nor did they have an agenda to dramatize the Scriptures or idealize the world. They were painting and composing music for the sake of the beauty of their themes. Their work was itself an act of worship designed to aid the church in worship.

Moreover, their audiences would not need their works to teach them the Scriptures, because they were counting on the laity to interpret Scripture as they read it in their own language-just as the artists and musicians themselves were doing when they por- trayed biblical themes. The Reformation, then, impacted the art and music of the day not only in the styles and forms of the various pieces, but also in their produc- tion and intended reception by those who would hear and see them.

Given that the musicians and painters of the Reformation were thus affected, what attitude did Luther and Calvin take toward art? While it is certainly true that the Reformation had a positive impact on the art of the period, it is also true that many Protestant churches across Western Europe, in their zeal to cleanse them- selves of the perceived idolatry of the Catholic church, dedicated much art work to destruction. Calvin sought to purge the church of images that fostered idolatry, but did not have a negative view of art on the whole. He wrote, "1 know the com- mon proverb, that images are the books of unlettered folk, and that St. Gregory hath thus spoken: but the Spirit of God hath judged otherwise" and that "all that men learn of God through images is frivolous and even abusive."ll

At the same time, he saw art as a gift of God that should be encouraged, as long as it glorified Him and did not seek to supplant His authority or majesty. He said, "1 am not so scrupulous as to judge that no images should be endured or suffered .... Therefore men should not paint nor carve anything but such as can be seen with the eye; so that God's Majesty ... may not be corrupted by fantasies which have no true agreement therewith."12

For Calvin, faith in the gospel through the preached Word was what the Christian ought to allow-to draw him heaven- ward. Those churches that did destroy their art did so sometimes with pure inten- tions of rooting out idolatry. Often, however, they destroyed their art with either a wrong motive or a wrong understanding of what Calvin was teaching. Luther had a much friendlier attihlde toward visual art, especially music. He believed that art should always be -used to glorify God and did not ban any form of art, even images. His interpretation of Scripture allowed for art to be used in churches and in private homes to assist in the worship of God. He wrote, "I would fain see all arts, and especially that of music, serving Him who hath created them and given them unto us .... "13

Luther's love of music came second only to his love of theologyY His un- derstanding of music was advanced, and he had an accomplished tenor voice. He and his choirmaster, Johann Walther, produced a hymnbook entitled the Wittenberg Gesangbuch. The book was the first of its kind. It contained a great variety of hymns, among them the famous "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, "15 which was a product of both Luther's musical talent and theological insight. l6

For the first time, the laity took a practicing role in the worship of God, and music was one of the vehicles by which they were able to do this. This is what set Reformation practice apart from the earlier Catholic style. As Durant wrote, "The people became the Church, the clergy became their ministers, the language of the service was to be the vernacular of the nation, the music was to be intelligible, and in it the congregation would take an active, finally a leading, role."l7 Luther, then, was instrumental in the later de- velopment of Protestant music, much more so than he (or any other Reformer) was in visual art. His profound influence on Bach will be shown in the next section. - The Impact of the Reformation on the Fine Arts John D. Wilsey Liberty University [B.A., Furman University; M.Div., Ph.D., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. At LU since 2009], http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1174&context=sor_fac_pubs