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Steven Oliver

'Religion for Atheists'

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Edited by Steven Oliver, Thursday, 16 Nov 2023, 21:08


This was (IMHO 🙂) a rather lightweight contribution to Unit 7 of A113 on post-Revolutionary experimentation in religion, but I thought I'd just capture some of the suggestions de Botton makes about aspects of religious practice and ritual that might add to a wholly secular life.

They were:

'Community'

An 'Agape Restaurant' - an open door,all comers welcome venue where individuals are seated separately from any pre-existing relationships and take a meal. Whilst eating, conversation will follow a set of prescribed lines set out in a guidebook at the table - the 'Book of Agape' .... 'What do you regret?'...'Whom can you not forgive?'...'What do you fear?' - effectively forcing a deeper understanding of at least a few more of our fellow humans.

The link here is made chiefly with the Roman Catholic Mass, its foundation around the meal table and aspects of ritual that break down barriers between individuals and establish a new (if ?temporary) community. The conversation guidebook follows from aspects of the Jewish Passover ritual, where a fixed set of questions are asked by the youngest member of the family.

A quarterly Day of Atonement, where we seek out those we have harmed and apologise.

Simply a fourfold expansion of the Jewish ritual.

An annual Feast of Fools at the Agape Restaurant, where we have licence to be as irrational and sexually unfaithful as we like. In this way we acknowledge that maintaining a measured life is hard given our human drives and desires, giving vent to them may help us get through the rest of the year.

The stimulus here is the medieval Christian (?French) 'festum fatuorum' that took place on New Year's Eve when clerics were allowed to get up to all sorts of sacrilegious hijinks. 

'Kindness'

Moral reminders on billboards and adverts and maintaining a tabletop pantheon of model moral role models.

The discussion here was around examples of religions being explicit about repeatedly reminding believers about how to live well, not expecting them to just get on with it. There were also plenty examples of requiring people to reflect on past 'heroes' and their achievements.

'Education'

The ideas here were mainly linked to higher education and a new role for it in accepting a role in teaching 'how to live'. There were a range of suggestions, making lectures into sermons, changing the focus of disciplines : Departments of Relationships; Institutes of Dying, Centres for Self-Knowledge, teaching teachers oratory so ideas would stick, engage with obstructions to acting on what you know - lots of repetition, using the body as part of the experience of education and training.

An interesting aspect of de Botton's argument was about the reasons subjects like art and literature entered the realm of University study - he makes a link with a 19thC crisis in confidence that religion could effectively deliver moral development and that 'Culture' was to be the remedy. However, he claims that whilst Universities seem to suggest they will 'develop' citizens they are not at all explicit about the moral messages that could be drawn from the arts. John Wesley gets a mention for delivering sermons that linked religion very much to the concerns of everyday life. Buddhism does most of the heavy lifting on training the body as a route to learning.


'Tenderness'

We should build Temples to Tenderness - calm soothing spaces, with images of motherhood.

The reflections here were how to respond to human dependence and religion's capacity to deliver on maternal comfort and support for everyone's inner (and ever present) child. Lots of Marian imagery here, but some other religions too, Guan Yin from Buddhism.

'Pessimism'

Share the bad thoughts, doubts and fears of ourselves and others on real time displays so we can recognise our darkness is shared - and weep together

The immediate link was with the wailing wall - but with no divinity to address our concerns. The central argument is that religions accept that life is flawed, ugly and often/usually doesn't turn out right. Of course they often have other future lives on offer, but at least they do not promote an unfounded optimism about life. We should expect to be disappointed and to fail.

'Perspective'

Project images of distant galaxies to provide a perspective on the (un)importance of individual lives within the totality of the universe.

I liked de Botton's idea that religion was a symbol of what exceeds us.

'Art'

We should equip ourselves with instruction manuals on how to take life lessons from art, organise specific educational structures to the display of art - a set of 'stations of life', displays in galleries and museums should be reorganised around our moral needs.

A contrast is made between the way in which art is never without purpose or unexplained when it is displayed by religions, the 'stations of the cross' is an example of a structured contemplation of art in the Christian tradition.

'Architecture'

We should build Temples of Perspective (giant tower to represent time, with a fine line to show human existence), Temples of Reflection where we could contemplate in solitude.

There were multiple examples of how religions use the built environment to enhance their message, there was also an image from Pugin's 'Contrasts' where he was implying that ugliness might harm our souls.

'Institutions'

We need new, possibly corporate, institutions to promote secular values, develop brand identities, commodify atheism.

The examples here were all about the success and scale of the major religions as institutions/corporate bodies. How they have the advantage of scale, recognition and also major earning power.


Many of the salient points are made in this TED talk...


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Steven Oliver

Getting 'hands on' with Reformation printing

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Edited by Steven Oliver, Thursday, 16 Nov 2023, 21:08

Another fantastic opportunity to use my SCONUL access rights and explore the archives at the University of York.

The Rare Books collection holds on long-term loan all those pre-1800 books that were part of the library of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, West Yorkshire. This Anglican religious community for men was founded in Oxford in 1892, and moved to Mirfield in 1898. The library was built up mainly by gifts from members and friends, and contains much valuable early material - including this copy of......

Auslegung der Episteln und Evangelien von Advent au bis auff Ostern, written by Martin Luther and published in the town of Magdeburg in 1533.

It has been absolutely fascinating, and also just an amazing privilege, to examine this nearly 500 year old book - a real primary source from the heart of the Lutheran Reformation!


The book is a postil, a collection of sermons by Martin Luther on each of the prescribed weekly Bible readings from the Gospels and the Epistles in the period from Advent to Easter. Further collections were made of Luther's interpretations of the readings for the rest of the year - eventually collected into what become known as his Church Postil. The term postil is derived from the Latin post illa verba textus ("after these words from Scripture")

It is a hefty tome, bound in leather - I think it is just 'blind tooled', although perhaps there is some gilt remaining in places. The covers are wooden and there are metal corners and two clasps. There is a little damage by wood worm, both to the covers and some gently nibbled pages.

It was once the property of someone called 'Hans Voyt', who has added his name to the ornate title page - which also highlights that the text has been corrected by Martin Luther and contains a 'new register' (essentially an index) - I'm guessing the ability to have a standard page length and numbering in every copy made indexing so much more straightforward in printed books - a 'new feature'.


 

There are lots of points to note on the page layouts and the different printed features in the book. I assume that there was a combination of metal movable type and woodblocks for the decorated capitals and illustrations. There was a side margin printed that summarised key aspects of the sermon text and woodblock pictures were spread throughout the pages. I wonder what the presence of these illustrations tells us about the intended readership - were these pictures 'entertainment', symbols of the added value embodied in a high end gift, did they have an educational objective in addition to supporting the text, was this just 'the fashion'?

  

I haven't found any reference anywhere yet to a specific illustrator, but I did find a small monograph in just one of the pictures shown below (John the Baptist is in prison on the left and checking out whether Jesus is 'he that should come?') I think it's probably 'HB'. There is a famous artist, Hans Brosamer, who I've found illustrated a number of publications at that time - but his 'HB' monograph looks different with the H run into B not distinct as in these letters. Something to look into further if I get the chance - but I guess most illustrators went unidentified if they weren't themselves a 'name' that might help sell the publication.

 

I liked the bit of 16thC cosmology shown below, with sun and moon rotating around the newly formed world - and Jesus sliding down to earth from the mouth of (a very Papal-looking!) God. (I'm struggling with the lettering that circles the world - is it perhaps 'God's Word'?)


Some great anachronistic knights accompany the three kings on Epiphany - and presumably the agents of King Herod on the way to do no good in the background (the stable has scrubbed up well too 😃)


The end of the postil confirms the printer to have been Michael Lotther. The Lott(h)ers were a multi-generational family of printers closely linked to Martin Luther and the Reformation. Luther had supported Melchior Lotther the Elder to set up as a printer in Wittenberg, and his sons Melchior (the younger) and Michael both entered the trade. Michael had moved out of Wittenberg to set up shop in Magdeburg by the time this work was being printed in 1533 - he remained close to Luther though and married into his family.


However, the book doesn't end there. In fact there is a second printed work bound together with it - another Reformation text, produced at the same time - but by a different printer and in a different city altogether.

Kirchen Ordnung. In meiner gnedigen herrn der Marggraven zu Brandenburg und eins erbern Rats der Stat Nürmberg Oberkeyt und gepieten, wie man sich bayde mit der leer und Ceremonien halten solle

These are Kirchen Ordnung, Church Orders - basically an agreed set of new 'rules' that a Lutheran church community should follow now that the old Catholic 'ordnung' had been set aside. I think in the early years of the Reformation there were a number of different regional/local formulations of church regulations, these are the set created by the Margraves of Brandenburg and the imperial city of Nuremberg.

They were printed in the city of Nuremberg in 1533 by the Gutknecht press and they helped to produce more uniform and stable approaches to worship amongst Lutheran churches both in that area and across Europe.


Whilst this part of the book has none of the fine illustration of the postil it does have quite a lot of two colour printing (I assume this was two impressions through the press) - most of this is in the description of the liturgy to distinguish the words of priest and congregation. There were also four pages of musical notation - I eventually worked out that this is plainsong to accompany the mass, 'Our Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed...' 

These are 'neumes', a way to denote choral chants before the five line staves and notes we are now used to. This style is a specifically German form - 'Gothic neumes' or Hufnagel - 'Horsenails' as they looked like the nails used to shoe horses. 

I'll have to see if I can make musical sense of it - so far I have even't worked out what the clef means! 


Given that this book is made up two separately printed texts I'm left with lots of questions about how and when these were brought together. Whilst there is a discontinuity in the printing style and the page numbering the appearance of the pages looks to have similar wear, the edges look to be discoloured to the same extent. I couldn't distinguish two 'sections' from the 'outside', so perhaps there is evidence that they have been bound together for a long time. Both texts are probably 'working documents', I can imagine how each would be of value to a Lutheran cleric - biblical exegesis and practical summaries of the new Reformed regulations and liturgy - a useful combination within one book.

One further observation might be of relevance to dating the book. Both the front and back endpapers have a faint watermark. I spent a long time trying to make it out and subsequently discovering a whole world of scholarship based around collecting and cataloguing paper watermarks. The mark is of an ox's head, with a letter 'M' below its mouth and a cross and entwined snake above. The best match I could find (and I think it is pretty much on the money) is a mark which is recorded in 'Briquet Online' having been recorded in a Copybook in Prague in 1534.

  

So, on the basis of the watermarks there is some evidence that the two seperate texts may have been bound together not that long after they were originally printed. The information I've found so far about paper watermarks is clear that you have to be very cautious in assuming similarity means that you can 'date' or 'locate' documents - but I think there's at least some basis for arguing that the current book may have been created sometime in the 1530's.

I've been astounded how many different strands of the A113 content came together in just this single artifact: technical aspects of printing (woodblocks/type/colour); printing and music (and the history of musical notation); the role of Martin Luther in 'expert' interpretation of God's word - not something that everyone in the 'priesthood of believers' could be trusted to do; the use of the German vernacular throughout; the challenge of bringing new regulation to control the revolutionary diversity of the new beliefs.

Examining this object was a really valuable experience and one I hope to come back to - perhaps to think more formally about a 'source analysis'.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bibliography

Primary source:

Luther, M. (1533). Auslegung der Episteln und Evangelien von Advent an bis auff Ostern; anderweit corrigirt durch Martinum Luther, etc. Wittenberg: Michael Lotther. [From an original held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York (https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/)]

To help identify the original documents:

Kirchen Ordnung. In meiner gnedigen herrn der Marggraven zu Brandenburg und eins erbern Rats der Stat Nürmberg Oberkeyt und gepieten, wie man sich bayde mit der leer und Ceremonien halten solle Nürmberg: Gutknecht,1533 [via the digitisation portal of Rhineland-Palatinate dilibri]

Auslegung der Episteln und Evangelien von Advent an bis auff Ostern; anderweit corrigirt durch Martinum Luther [via the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek]

To help identify the paper watermarks:

Briquet Online (v. 2.1 - 2021-01-23)

Background on the Lotthers:

Reformation Printers: Unsung Heroes Author(s): Richard G. Cole Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal , Autumn, 1984, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 327-339 Published by: Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/2540767

Tillmanns, W. G. (1951) "The Lotthers: Forgotten Printers of the Reformation," Concordia Theological Monthly: Vol. 22, Article 23. Available at: https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol22/iss1/23

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Steven Oliver

Second wave Reformation

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Edited by Steven Oliver, Thursday, 16 Nov 2023, 21:09

A day trip to Geneva this summer allowed a quick visit to the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre and some 'pre-work' for A113. This was home to Jean Calvin's 'second wave' of Protestant Reformation.


The building has been reworked many times since being established in the 12th century, the austere neo-classical front is an 18th century reconfiguration. The interior is stripped down, largely, to bare stone - there is nothing between the simple wooden altar and the congregation.


Apparently the ornate wooden pulpit was one survivor of the iconoclastic purge that accompanied Genevan's adoption of a 'Reformed' religion in 1535. The importance of 'The Word' in the new version of Christianity presumably kept this from the bonfire.


I'm not quite sure what the provenance of 'Calvin's Chair' is - it's a famous object, and presumably his seat when not in the pulpit. But I don't know if it was a possession, whether it moved with him when he arrived, left and returned to Geneva - or whether it was a fixture at Saint-Pierre? It fits the bill in having a functional and rather uncomfy look. 


A link with A113, the 'Hymn Board' (or perhaps sung-Psalm board?) was one of the very few features and fittings in the church (there was another above the pulpit). A marker of one of the distinctive new features of Protestant worship.


Not a great range on offer at the 'gift shop' (surely the Godly would be doing some serious grave-rotating at the very thought!😆), but here is a role-call of Protestant notables all on the one postcard - no doubt they'd have been laying into each other hammer and tongs had they been trapped together in person!

Les hommes de la Réforme

Huss - Melanchton - Gustave Adolphe - Zwingli

Heronimus - Calvin - Luther - Wiclef


Finally an image of John Knox - who took this flavour of strict Genevan Reformation and, if anything, ramped it up for Scottish consumption. I'm really interested in what he is holding in his right hand, I assume it is some sort of writing implement - there are other writing paraphernalia on the table - but I've not seen anything like it before. It looks almost like a pair of calipers, but held upside down. Something to try and track down as the course goes on.


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