War against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin

This is a careful exposition of perceptions regarding idolotry and the resulting "iconoclasm" during the Reformation - one of the primary arguments of the book is that perceptions that the Church was idolatrous, especially in regard to the use of images of saints and Mary, was one of the driving forces in the Reformation. Eire is meticulous in detailing not only the facts of how iconoclasm was carried, but also the intellectual and spiritual motiviations underlying it.Interestingly, although this at first glance seems distinct from the main thesis of the book, Eire does an excellent job of exploring and explaining the thought of Erasmus and Calvin in particular. For that reason, I'd especially recommend this book to those who are interested in an intellectual and religious history focusing on those two (although many other important figures are covered as well).

As an Episcopal US Navy chaplain I ministered to thousands of young people who shared with me their personal piety. As coming from a "bridge" church I could empathize with all kinds of ways to express one's faith. I remember one time when i was on a carrier heading home from the Arctic I celebrated the Easter Vigil of the Book of Common Prayer where I had an independent fundamentalist Baptist reading the gospel, while I baptized a Roman Catholic sailor. We used one of the butt cans on the mess deck as an thuriblel and used incense we got from the bishop in Portsmouth England.I also have spent 40 years immersed in the culture of Roman Catholic Spain. This scholarly, but clearly written book helped me synthesize all these experiences and the subtleties of the Roman, Lutheran, Reformed viewpoints. And gave me an insight in some of the world or relics and medieval piety which still remain in Spain This is written for the inquiring and serious reader. Although it is heavily documented, one can read along quite easily delving in on whatever level suits your needs.It is written by that wonderfully insightful author of the sensitive bio-novel Waiting for Snow in Havana. A radically different venue, but equally as sensitive even while being scholarly.

Central to Carlos Eire's "war against the idols" is a struggle between two religious ideas: a "religion of immanence" and a "religion of transcendence" (p. 2). This struggle permanently separated religious allegiances, not only among Catholic and Protestant, but also among Lutheran and Reformed. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, many cried out for reformation, but it was Calvin's theology of idolatry, Eire argues, that "provided a solid ideological foundation for much of the social and political unrest that accompanied the spread of Calvinism" (p. 3).Eire divides the work into three parts. The first part explicates the practice of the cultus divorum, and the development of its critique from medieval theologians to Erasmus. Lay devotion in the late Middle Ages sought to "grasp the transcendent by making it immanent" (p. 11); an attempt, that is, to gain "local" control of the divine. Fragments of the transcendent--skeletal remains of apostles, Virgin Mary's milk, Christ's foreskin, hair and nail clippings, and, most importantly, fragments of the true cross--became commonplace. Lay devotion would ultimately expand into the cultus divorum, but this had a fragile edifice, which, Eire tells us, "rested on shaky ground." The cultus divorum comprised two forms: the first in art, such as images, paintings, statues; the second in the relics of saints. In short, the cultus divorum was the materialization and externalization of religious piety in the late medieval period.Criticism of external sources of piety began as early as the eighth and ninth centuries, during the violent clashes of the Iconoclastic Controversy. It was not until the fourteenth century, however, that sustainable, critical, movements emerged. According to Eire, the early Cistercians and Franciscans, the Devotio Moderna, and the Brethren of the Common Life were some of the most important critics of the excessive "ornamentation" of the late medieval piety. Some of the more outspoken critics were the Lollards and the Hussites; but whereas the Cistercians, Francis-cans, and the Brethren of the Common Life emphasized the simpler life, the Lollards and Hus-sites contended for alternative theological frameworks, and often through violent means (p. 23).A more explicit, and sophisticated, challenge to the cultus divorum came from the writings of Erasmus. As a critic of medieval religion, Erasmus sees the saints as successors of the pagan gods, observing that when Venus gave up protecting the sailors, the Virgin Mary replaced her (p. 38). But according to Eire, because Erasmus' critique rested on "Neoplatonic" foundations, and the fact that he did no reforming of his own, his critique was largely directed for the cultured elite, and thus held no practical value for the quotidian lives of the masses. He was, in a word, a Northern Humanist, incorporating both pagan and Christian thought into a framework that suited his own tastes.The second part of Eire's work traces the condemnation of religious images by reformers Karlstadt, Luther, Zwingli, Bullinger, and Bucer, and the incipient practice of iconoclasm in the Swiss towns of Geneva. Karlstadt took the image prohibition in the Decalogue with utmost seriousness, yet his tactics for promoting the removal of images in churches were less than admira-ble (p. 65). Luther took a more moderate position, arguing that images are "really indifferent and can really do no harm to the faithful if they are not trusted in" (p. 68). Zwingli's rejection of icons was primarily grounded on his reading of scripture, and only secondarily on the "social and political distress of his people" (p. 85). Bullinger followed Zwingli, but corroborated scripture with a "historical perspective," constructing the development of image worship beginning with the Jews, the persecutions of Christian saints, martyrs, and finally culminating in monastic piety (p. 87). Bucer in essence argues along similar lines as Luther, that there is indeed a danger that images could lead to idolatrous worship, but that images in churches did not make this inevitable (p. 92). Bucer's most unique contribution was that he argued that the cultus divorum was essentially "unchristian," and that it was against "faith and love" (p. 91). Finally, Eire observes that although the theology of these reformers set the groundwork for the condemnation of the cultus divorum, it was the popularization of their ideas that solidified the attack on Catholic piety (p. 94). This was done in three stages: first, through the spread of pamphlets; second, through preaching by Reformed-minded preachers; and finally, through theater, in the form of drama (pp. 94-104). Eire's main point in this second part, as this brief survey indicates, is that ideas have consequences. Eire acutely demonstrates this in his discussion devoted to Swiss iconoclasm (pp. 105-65). The iconoclastic movement, Eire concludes, "is the one aspect of the Reformation in which popular participation was highest, and it is also the focus of the very process by which the religious transvaluation of the sixteenth century was effected" (p. 159).In the third and final part, Eire concentrates on the Reformation outside the boundaries of Germany, particularly in France. Reform was largely fomented by the humanists Jacques Lefèvre d' Etaples, Guillaume Briçonnet, Gerard Roussel, and Guillaume Farel. However, these humanists, especially Lefèvre, were not systematic in their denunciations of Catholic piety, and, thus, were merely a tempered critique of the cultus divorum, remaining merely a"half-way station" to radical reform (p. 194).It was Calvin, Eire argues, who provides the practical basis for reform in worship, by fashioning "a new, scripturally based, theological metaphysics, in which the boundaries between the spiritual and the material were more clearly drawn than ever; and...his reaffirmation of the centrality of `spiritual' worship...provided a solid ideological foundation for much of the social and political unrest that accompanied the spread of Calvinism" (p. 3). Eire supports this claim by providing the context of Calvin's thoughts. He argues, on the one hand, that Calvin's spiritual and intellectual development owed much to the humanist circle, especially Lefèvre and Farel. Their "metaphysical transcendence" laid the foundations of Reformed worship. On the other hand, the foundations were procured by the originality of Calvin's attack on the hermeneutic of commonplace piety (p. 168). Calvin supported his attack with a theological framework that holds: (1) that true knowledge of God and true worship of God are inseparable (p.197); (2) that because God is spiritual, he must be worshiped in spirit (p. 201); and (3) that idolatry is inescapable because of the Fall (p. 203). Unlike previous reformers, who traced a "historical perspective" of idolatry, Calvin, according to Eire, traces a "psychological perspective" of idolatry. Combined with these theological presuppositions, Calvin adds to his attack against the cultus divorum an appeal to reason: "If men cannot be convinced of the theological error involved in relic worship, then at least they might be able to see that its actual practice is insulting to human reason" (p. 228). Eire concludes by pointing out three important contributions of Calvin's reform: (1) he focuses the error of idolatry on the "human condition itself" (p. 232); (2) he sees worship as the "central concern of Christians" (ibid.); and (3) he provides a practical analysis of reverential acts (p. 233).In the last two chapters, although Eire continues to develop the nuances of Calvin's theology of idolatry, here he also responds to possible objections to his method. First, in arguing that Calvin's attack on the Nicodemites was primarily "theologically grounded," and only secondarily motivated by political and tactical considerations, Eire refutes the arguments of revisionist scholars who maintain that Calvin was a political recalcitrant (p. 256). Second, Eire cogently refutes Carlo Ginsburg's claim that the Nicodemites were a unified, aristocratic movement (p. 253). Finally, Eire deals with Quentin Skinner's thesis, who argues that "theology has little if anything to do with the issue of resistance" during the Reformation (p. 304). In a word, he asserts that Skinner has, ostensibly, overstressed secular motives and seriously underestimated how theological ideas, especially the war against idolatry, led to the development of resistance theories (p. 308).In this work Eire has provided a very persuasive argument for the importance, and consequence, of ideas. In this sense, Eire follows the relatively new field of the "history of ideas," a phrase first coined by Arthur Lovejoy in the early twentieth century, and a concept that continued in relevance in the works of such provocative and adroit scholars as Isaiah Berlin and Michel Foucault.But it is also in this sense where we see the limitations of Eire's work. He admits that his work is an "intellectual history" and not an "entire history of Reformation iconoclasm" (p. 4). As a result, there is a certain level of dissatisfaction in Eire's narrative. I should have liked to see more interaction with the ideas of the Italian Humanists, especially Girolamo Savonarola. Savonarola was the first to set up a "Christian and religious republic" in Florence, which reminds one of Calvin's "most Christian Geneva." Moreover, it was Savonarola and his followers who carried out the "Bonfire of Vanities," which attempted to burn all ostentatious imagery. The creator of the Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli, is said to have been so moved by Savonarola's preaching, that he burned many of his paintings in the fires of the "Vanities." It was also through reading Savonarola's works that Erasmus--despite his critique of Catholic piety--remained a devoted Catholic. Although Eire begins with Erasmus, the cry for reformation was heard long before the reformers of the sixteenth century.Furthermore, I should have also liked to see more interaction on the mystical and scholastic traditions of the Middle Ages, with their emphasis on "interiority" and "transcendence." Calvin's idea of God's exalted position in relation to creation (p. 216) undeniably parallels Neopla-tonic ideas found in the Middles Ages, accentuated by Boethius, Philip the Chancellor, and espe-cially Duns Scotus. Eire, in this instance, is excellent on the influence of reformers, but slim on the influence of scholasticism on Calvin's developing theology.Finally, although Eire rejects Skinner's thesis, I remain unconvinced of the importance of theology alone in the Reformation in general and "resistance theory" in particular. Eire's example of the iconoclasts Amy Perrin and Pierre Vandel (p. 314) forging the "Libertine" movement against Calvin suggests that although theology as ideology is important, history is never so clear. That is, theological ideas and concepts are themselves fostered within complex socio-political environments. Calvin's theology was not only circumscribed by scripture, but infused with, firstly, the social events surrounding his family and their ordeal with the Catholic church, and, secondly, the political situations in France, Basle, Strasbourg, and Geneva. It should not be for-gotten, furthermore, that reform only succeeded under the auspices of the state. To cursorily assert that theology was "primary" and politics "secondary" ignores the context of theological ideas. Calvin's theology was indeed scripturally grounded, but scriptural "facts," just as any historical facts, is never independent of interpretation.These remarks, however, should not detract from the importance of Eire's work. He acutely demonstrates the consequences of ideas--and in particular theological ones. His work largely succeeds in one crucial way: as theological history. He correctly traces the tributaries of Reformed thought during the sixteenth century, yielding finally into the vast river of Calvin's theological project. Where Eire fails to satisfy, he is absolved by memorable prose, erudition and a punctilious attention to his sources. Eire concludes that the Copernican revolution in physics "has its parallel in the revolution in metaphysics that Calvin championed" (p. 312). Although the Copernican revolution had tremendous consequences within Christendom, it was Calvin's theology of idolatry that permanently divided it.

Many Protestant Christians are familiar with the basics of Reformation history. We know at least some of the details of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox. This book gives a needed insight into how the Reformation played out in different cities and also the importance of iconoclasm. The Reformation did not advance simply through preaching and the printing press. I am not an expert on Reformation history, so I cannot vouch for all the facts or analysis, but the author has opened an important window into the past.