The Less Decoration in Our Churches the Better: This is Most Certainly NOT True
I was reading around on blog sites, as is my wont, [how often do you get to use that phrase? 'as is my wont'], but I digress. I bumped into some conversations about the kind of church art, decoration and ornamentation that American Lutherans learned to associate with the Lutheran Church. For some, perhaps many American Lutherans, a “Lutheran Church” is fairly plain and “stripped down.” But as much as Lutherans think that this is somehow the “gold standard” for Lutheran churches, the fact is, this is most certainly not true. Even those Lutherans who think that their church is “plain” would be surprised by the reaction from many other Reformed and Evangelical Christians. That there is an altar at all in Lutheran churches is absolutely shocking to the classic Calvinist type of American protestant. That tradition, in its more pure forms/strands, regards any image in a church to be a direct violation of the Second Commandment, as they so number the Commandments, “Thou shalt make no graven images.”
And so, if you happen to find yourself in a conservative Presbyterian Church, chances are it will be extremely plain, with no decorations at all. This “minimalism” impacted Lutheranism, already back in the late 1600s and early 1700s, and then to an ever increasing degree under the influence of Pietism, which tended to eschew outward symbolism, and emphasized the “interior life” more. The other influence of history on American Lutheran tastes is the simple fact that most Lutheran immigrants were dirt poor and so when they constructed their places of worship, they did as much as they could, but access to artists and sculptors was limited, and funding was equally limited, so as a result, any number of smaller churches were often very plain. There are many notable exceptions, to be sure. The end results of a combination of factors: the influence of Pietism, the influence of being surrounded by American Protestants of a Calvinist tradition, and simple economics, resulted in several generations of Lutherans becoming used to Lutheran churches that are fairly plain. Consequently, there are any number of Lutherans who recoil in shock when they see a richly decorated Lutheran church interior, such as one finds in spectacular grandeur at the older city churches in both Saint Louis and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Here I’m thinking of Holy Cross here in St. Louis, or St. Paul Lutheran Church or Zion Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne. The same can be found elsewhere, in Detroit, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and so forth.
The point being that when the people had the will and the way, they decorated their churches as richly and beautifully as possible. The sad thing is that some Lutherans actually believe it is “more Lutheran” to have a church that is plain and stripped of paintings, sculpture and decorations. They think, and sometimes even rudely demand, that there be no fine arts like this in a Lutheran house of worship. The simple reality and fact is that there “minimalism” in church decoration is not the historic Lutheran way. I am always sad when I see new Lutheran churches built that have cavernous interior, but little decoration and art. When the altar and baptismal font become movable pieces of furniture in a Lutheran congregation, this is unfortunate. The dogmatician Francis Pieper said this about visual images, and I’m wondering if we have forgotten that truth. Oh, and again, when you hear somebody opine that a crucifix is not Lutheran. Please, kindly just hand them a copy of this and help them understand how untrue that assumption is.
Now, what can you do with a plain interior? One word: banners. It is amazing how much color, life and vibrant visual images can be added by making use of banners, and the larger the better. That’s just one idea. Do you have other ideas? What’s the most beautiful Lutheran church interior you’ve seen?
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Grace Ev. Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA. http://www.gracesandiego.net
The chapel at Bethany Lutheran College. It is rich with symbolism. Just a beautiful sanctuary.
I have only seen this church on the their internet page, http://www.osl.cc/ Our Savior Lutheran in Houston, TX. The architecture is unique here in the United States. The church is octagon in shape and has many statues inside and of course a crucifix in the center. The church website has a wonderful PDF history of church architecture with photos/drawings of other octagonal churches in Germany. I would love to visit it someday.
Permission to typeset the crucifix article as a pamphlet?
McCain response: Absolutely, sure.
Not sure if this will open as a live link, if not, a search on Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Cleveland will lead to archives showing the beauty of this gem. Zion is an historic LCMS church in Cleveland and the ecclesiastical appointments are magnificent.
http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/germans&CISOPTR=19&CISOBOX=1&REC=12
The Lutheran Reformation was conservative and not iconoclastic. In keeping with the pratice of the Church catholic Lutherans have always employed the arts in their worship and the influence of American Protestantism with its minimalism is foreign to authentic Lutheran sensibility.
Christine
I have visited Our Savior Lutheran in Houston. Pastor Laurence White gave me a DVD on the history of this type of Church architecture and how this particular Church came to be built. It is truly a beautiful Church and the DVD was great. This Church made me start to rethink some of my opinions on Church/religious art – my son is artistic and I wonder what kind of message it sends when art is not welcome in Church? Because sinful people abuse art and turn it in to idols (see the bronze serpent in Scripture) does not mean all art should be banned. God Himself directed the making of the bronze serpent, sinful people turned it into an idol. Where does the problem lie? – in the object itself or in man’s heart? One could make the same argument about anything for our sinful hearts are idol factories, no art needed.
Forty years ago, my Catholic aunt dared to enter a Lutheran church. At the time, local priests told their parishioners that entering a non-Catholic church was a serious sin. What demonic evils greeted her when she entered that forbidden place? I remember her reporting back to my mother the following: “It was just like one of our churches!”
When I first became a Lutheran, I mistakenly thought that one of the differences between a “high” Lutheran church and a “low” Lutheran church was the prominent presence of a crucifix. I preferred the “high” Lutheran churches. The “low” ones looked bare–sometimes so bare as to resemble a soulless congregational church building: sterile and chilly–B-r-r-r-r!
@Tapani Simojoki
Thank you!
jmark,
Forty years ago, my Catholic aunt dared to enter a Lutheran church. At the time, local priests told their parishioners that entering a non-Catholic church was a serious sin. What demonic evils greeted her when she entered that forbidden place?
I was taught the same thing! I was told the moment I step foot at a Protestant church, I would go straight to hell; they told me the earth would actually open and swallow me down. I was just a young boy then. I remember being rebellious and I would purposely step near the door way of a local Protestant church, I would quickly put my right foot in and quickly take it back, just to see if it were true.
As to high church, I have a different reasoning. If I wanted a high church experience, I might as well go back and be an RC again.
Those symbols and what have you are present in the RC church, but as an ex-RC, they can really distract you from Scripture.
LPC
If we would remember that churches are sacred spaces, where Christ is truly and sacramentally present, perhaps we wouldn’t build sanctuaries that look like potato barns.
Among Lutherans, I wonder how much of this is Karlstadt’s legacy. Much damage to the Reformation is he.
The first Lutheran church interiors were decorated in the style of the German Renaissance and Cranach was intimately involved in the abundant art work along with the Wittenberg carver. St. Wolfgang’s in Schneeberg was the first Lutheran church being completed during Luther’s lifetime. However, it was a bone of contention along with Schneeberg’s silver mines between the Albertines and Ernestines. It took a few years for the Lutheran Ernestines to solidly win the church and install the Cranach altar piece in the 1530s. In the 1540s the Ernestines built, decorated, and dedicated their palace chapel at Hartenfels Castle in Torgau. Cranach had painted much on the interior of the castle, huge hunting scenes, skies full of clouds. So it was natural that he also painted almost every inch of the chapel and especially the reredos the stood behind the carved stone altar table held up by two angels. German Renaissance style called for elaborate and busy use of space with figural art. All that is left today is the stone altar table and the pulpit. The 3rd Lutheran buildng I’d bring into this discussion is the Beatae Mariae Viginis in Wolfenbuettel. This church was built in 1608 and is often considered the 1st purpose built Lutheran hauptkirche. The dukes of Hesse-Wolfenbeuttel made this church a monument to their family, burying 23 members in the crypt below. History has been kind to preserve most of the art that the dukes built into their church. The 4th buildings I’d mention are the 2 peace churches still to be found in Silesia that were built by Lutherans at the end of the 30 years war in about 1650. The Lutherans lost Silesia to the Hapsburgs but by negotiaion in the treaty were allowed to build 3 churches in Silesia although with stricht limitation. Evenso, they built beautifully decorated churches. You can lovely pictures of all these churches by Google Image searches. These Lutherans decorated their churches in the styles of the day making them as lovely as posible.
It’s been 40 years, but I recall evidence that the rural South Dakota church where my late father served as pastor in the 1960s had once been more richly decorated. At that time the chancel was very “minimalist” with a cross (not a crucifix) above a plain altar. There was your basic pulpit and lectern and, of course, the moveable baptismal font off to one side. However, high on a shelf in a basement closet there was a collection of old, German-style crucifixes. Also, in one corner of the choir loft there was a statue of an angel that apparently was overlooked when the style of the church was brought “up to date.” It was a great shock when Dad took a call to a Nebraska parish that had been less strongly influenced by pietism. The highly ornate altar featured a statue of Christ (!) that I remember as nearly life-size. But this may be a trick of memory, because the statue was elevated so high off the floor.
McCain response; David, this is precisely what happened in a good many small rural churches. For some reason, they were bitten by the “sterile” bug and tore out their beautiful ornate altars, statues of Christ and crucifixes and put in their place plain things. Sad.