Devotion of Images according to the Reformers: Martin Luther and John Calvin

Dariusz Klejnowski-Różycki

Uniwersytet Opolski, Wydział Teologiczny

Abstract

Two Fathers of the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin questioned the veneration of images. They used different arguments. Martin Luther allowed the presence of paintings in churches, while John Calvin did not. Their theology influenced Europe so strongly that even Catholicism in its ordinary sensitivity departed from the understanding of the image as an object of worship and entered the time of art. A painting ceased to be understood as a special place of presence (icon), and began to function as a work of art. Having ceased to be a medium referring to the original, it became itself an original in the artistic sense.