The Reformation and the Visual Arts: The Protestant Image Question in Western and Eastern Europe.

Dillenberger, John

By Sergiusz Michalski. Christianity and Society in the Modern World. New York: Routledge, 1993. Pp. xiii + 232. $49.95.

The translation of this volume, originally published in Polish in Warsaw in 1989, presents to the West a scholar who is versed in both East and Western Europe. Michalski, who taught at the Universities of Warsaw, Augsburg, and Braunschweig, is now a free-lance scholar residing in Augsburg.

It should be said at the outset that M.'s central preoccupation throughout the volume is understanding the image question from the underside of iconoclasm. The first third of his book deals primarily with the image question in Luther, Karlstadt, Zwingli, and Calvin. With directness and a thorough grounding in the sources, he lays out their respective views of images. Here, Western readers, living in the context of writers such as Carl Christensen, Robert Scribner, and Carlos Eire, will find few surprises. But they will be impressed by the fresh forms of M.'s presentation. For myself, I would probably emphasize Luther's law and gospel motif in Cranach's art more than M. does. With respect to Calvin, M. follows an older accent on the Glory of God as referring to God's invisible nature, but he is convincing in the way he uses it with respect to images.

For me, and I think for many readers, the remaining two-thirds of the book is particularly suggestive in areas in which one has some acquaintance, and it is overwhelming in its account of the interaction of Protestants, Lutheran and Calvinist, with both Greek and Russian Eastern Orthodox groups. The chapter on "iconoclasm" probes the different meanings and associations of this term, a complex of factors of a social, human, and religious nature, as illustrated in various individuals and groups in the reformation period.

"Icon and Pulpit," M.'s longest chapter, deals first with the lands nearest to the Reformation, such as the abortive attempt to introduce Protestantism into Orthodox Moldavia and the Reformation in the Baltic lands. Then follows the contact with the Greek Orthodox, and finally the Russian. M. chronicles the history of the interrelations based on travelers, Protestant incursions, and publications. The history, as he states, is full of misunderstanding, based on the impossibility of remotely understanding each other when Scripture and Tradition respectively are so fiercely held. Only in the twentieth century has mutual appreciation developed.

M.'s last chapter examines the various historic meanings associated with the term "image," e.g. the word "sign" used both with respect to images and sacraments. Further, he notes the almost inevitable association of iconoclasm with less sacramental views, and the positive place of images in more sacramental understandings.

The wealth of M.'s historical knowledge and the dexterity of his thought are formidable. This makes the book an extraordinary achievement, a book one continues to ponder, wondering what more lies behind so many tantalizing suggestions. Admittedly, that also leads to some frustrations for the reader. But there are also hints in the book of avenues of exploration that are underway, making one look forward to the next installment.