The Reformation
Jesus was the "Mirror of the fatherly heart [of God], apart from who
we see nothing but a wrathful and terrible judge."
Martin Luther, Large Catechism
When Martin Luther refused to recant his bold criticism of the Catholic Church - "Here I stand, I can do no other" - he initiated what is arguably the most significant intellectual and cultural debate in western civilization. The Reformation inspired some of the most creative and controversial thought in the history of western culture. Many of these debates focused around Jesus and his relation to the classical triad of the Beautiful, the True, and the Good. While virtually all thinkers saw in Jesus the reflection of Truth - both spiritual and intellectual - there was little consensus about how Jesus reflected Beauty and Goodness. In their attempts to locate Jesus in the realms of aesthetics and politics, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Jean Calvin (1509-1564) again tried to answer the question which has engaged and baffled Christian thinkers since the beginning of the faith: Where does Jesus fit in the secular world order?
Canadian Heritage Information Network, The Provincial Museum of Alberta,
© 2000, CHIN. All Rights Reserved.
we see nothing but a wrathful and terrible judge."
Martin Luther, Large Catechism
When Martin Luther refused to recant his bold criticism of the Catholic Church - "Here I stand, I can do no other" - he initiated what is arguably the most significant intellectual and cultural debate in western civilization. The Reformation inspired some of the most creative and controversial thought in the history of western culture. Many of these debates focused around Jesus and his relation to the classical triad of the Beautiful, the True, and the Good. While virtually all thinkers saw in Jesus the reflection of Truth - both spiritual and intellectual - there was little consensus about how Jesus reflected Beauty and Goodness. In their attempts to locate Jesus in the realms of aesthetics and politics, Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Jean Calvin (1509-1564) again tried to answer the question which has engaged and baffled Christian thinkers since the beginning of the faith: Where does Jesus fit in the secular world order?
Canadian Heritage Information Network, The Provincial Museum of Alberta,
© 2000, CHIN. All Rights Reserved.
