Calvinism and the Arts
A Re-assessment
by C.R. Joby
It is often thought that the French Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) had a negative attitude towards the arts, particularly visual art. However, in Calvinism and the Arts: A Re-assessment, Dr. Joby argues that in Calvin’s writings and in the development of the Reformed tradition more generally, it is possible to discern a more positive attitude than has hitherto been recognized. He makes a start by examining exactly what type of visual art Calvin rejected and what type he affirmed. He goes on to consider how Calvin’s epistemology and eschatology can be used to argue for the placing of certain types of art, notably histories and landscape paintings, within Reformed churches and then devotes separate chapters to reflecting on how music, architecture and church decoration within the Reformed tradition provide further arguments for the use of these works of art. In the final section, he looks at specific histories and landscapes from the Dutch Golden Age and considers how the form and content of both of these types of art provide us with further ontological and epistemological arguments which inevitably lead to the conclusion that their continued exclusion from Reformed churches is no longer tenable.
It is often thought that the French Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) had a negative attitude towards the arts, particularly visual art. However, in Calvinism and the Arts: A Re-assessment, Dr. Joby argues that in Calvin’s writings and in the development of the Reformed tradition more generally, it is possible to discern a more positive attitude than has hitherto been recognized. He makes a start by examining exactly what type of visual art Calvin rejected and what type he affirmed. He goes on to consider how Calvin’s epistemology and eschatology can be used to argue for the placing of certain types of art, notably histories and landscape paintings, within Reformed churches and then devotes separate chapters to reflecting on how music, architecture and church decoration within the Reformed tradition provide further arguments for the use of these works of art. In the final section, he looks at specific histories and landscapes from the Dutch Golden Age and considers how the form and content of both of these types of art provide us with further ontological and epistemological arguments which inevitably lead to the conclusion that their continued exclusion from Reformed churches is no longer tenable.
- By (author) CR Joby
Other Titles in this Series
The Mind of God and the Works of Nature
Laws and Powers in Naturalism, Platonism, and Classical Theism
Volume 65
Finitude and Theological Anthropology
An Interdisciplinary Exploration into Theological Dimensions of Finitude
Volume 47
Mobile Performances
Linguistic Undecidability as Possibility and Problem in the Theology of Religions
Volume 48
The Art of Theology
Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics and the Foundations of Faith
Volume 25
Similar Books
A Companion to Christianity and Sport in Europe and North America (19th-21st centuries)
Volume 1: Western and Eastern Europe
A Connecting Polemic in the Medieval Mediterranean
The Correspondence of Leo III and ʿUmar II
Volume 6
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Creating the Woman in Antiquity
Proceedings of the 16th Melammu Workshop, Innsbruck, 2–3 June 2022
Volume 13
Cultic Kisses
Fruitful Encounters Between Deities and Humans. Festschrift for Angelika Berlejung on the Occasion of Her 65th Birthday
De/colonizing Theologies
Glocal Histories, Contemporary Challenges, Theoretical Reflections
Volume 4
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Éthique, politique, religions
Superstition (XVIIe - XXIe siècles). Sémantique, histoires et cultures
