An anthology on the evangelical sacral art has been issued in Germany
Recently, Michael Imhof Verlag, the famous German publishing house, issued an anthology of the presentations made at the scientific conference called “Indifferent Things? Objects and Images in Post-Reformation Churches in the Baltic Sea Region”, which took place in 2017 at the Niguliste Museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia. The book of the same name, which was edited by Krista Kodres, Merike Kurisoo and Ulrike Nürnberg, is comprised of 14 scientific articles by renowned northern European art historians.
This is a collection of articles which addresses many aspects of material and ceremonial church practices that were re-considered during the process of the Lutheran Reformation – the status of “indifferent things” in the historical context of the Reformation as adiaphora/Mitteldinge – as well as inquiring more generally into the existence and meaning of material objects in the evangelical sacral space. Of course, problems concerning the adiaphora had their own dynamic in the Lutheran theological discussion, so the book describes how the process was reflected in different congregational practices, i.e. in “lived religion”. The questions fit in with key ideas about the relationships of objects and people in a culture that had arisen after the “performative turn” and “material turn”: a wave that lasted for some time in the humanities. Hence, this book focuses on the relationships and networks of relationships through which the meanings and effects of “indifferent things” are expressed most clearly.
The anthology is based on the papers presented at the international scientific conference “Indifferent Things? Objects and Images in Post-Reformation Churches in the Baltic Sea Region”, organised by the Art Museum of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn University and Böckler-Mare-Balticum-Stiftung (Germany) in late 2017. The book is the third in the series of publications Edition Mare Balticum, which is supported by Böckler-Mare Balticum and focuses on the early art history of the Baltic Sea region.
More information available here.