In 1517, Martin Luther produced a list of complaints that the Catholic Church had become excessively obsessed with power and money. The church was also too much interested in worshipping images instead of inspiring people to live faith in Christ. These complaints were named the "95 theses," and they were the foundation of the church division named as protestant reformation (Fiero, 2015). Those separations had a significant influence on the arts, which in Europe focused on religious aspects. People displayed them in churches and other public places for the congregation to see. Protestants believe in intimacy with God, and thus there was no need of attending church (Luther, 2011). All the arts that emphasized the power of Catholic Church started to disappear. Protestants were centered in North Europe and artists began to focus on small, inexpensive pieces for people to worship back at home. Meaning that printmaking although not accessible elsewhere, succeeded in Germany since people had resulted in the small-sized figures for personal worship. The push away from strict religion encouraged northern artists to extend printings to secular themes such as personal traits, landscapes and other images.
What surprised me is that Christians believed on what they also doubted, it seems as if people like to live confused. Every Christian worshipped the arts, but when Luther announced about the Catholic Church obsession, they left, terming it as idolatry yet they worshipped it before.
I agree that, even when there are politics as a storm, some institutions are strong enough to stand. For example, the Catholic Church today boasts as the largest Christian denomination, as a single entity, it carries more than a third of the population (Villis and Tom, 2013). Also, I agree that the church as a whole should bring unity and not division; humility should be at the center of every Christian according to the biblical teachings (Murphy and Huwiler, 2012). It is a pity that the church separated to create two rivals groups.
References
Fiero, G. (2015). The Humanistic Tradition Volume 2: The Early Modern World to the Present. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Luther, M. (2011). Ninety-five theses. 120 banned, 277.
Murphy, R. E., " Huwiler, E. (2012). Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series). Baker Books.
Villis, Tom. "Introduction." In British Catholics and Fascism, pp. 1-8. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2013.
