Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Law and the Gospel

Morality was a major issue in the reformation and became central to the Protestant views. Going back to the gospel for answers was a common theme during this time and morality was no exception.  In this image, which is an oil painting done by Cranach in 1529, we see how some of Luther's theological ideas.  The right side of this image represents living by the gospel while the left represents to opposite.   We can see on the right side of the image we see a man pointing to Jesus on the cross and trying to exemplify that you must have faith in God.  This is representative of the salvation by faith idea created by Luther.



On the left side Adam and Eve in combination with the man being forced into hell show what happens when one deviates from the Gospel and faith.  God is also depicted in this image in two different ways.  On the left side of the image he is looking down upon Adam and Eve passing judgment upon them.  Although on the right side of the image we see God showing mercy to the man.  This idea of God as passionate and merciful is another one of Luther's ideas that were central to his thesis.

1 comment:

  1. This painting is intriguing to me because as you stated in your blog God is depicted in it. This is interesting to me because protestants believed that the third commandment was directly againt making any graven image depicting heaven or God. I wonder if Martin Luther would've supported this painting or if he would see it as opposing the third commandment.

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