Posted on 07/31/2015 6:22:20 AM PDT by marshmallow
The German Protestant Church (EKD) has apologised for the widespread destruction of religious images during the Reformation.
“The Protestant Church rejects the destruction of images. Images have long since become an expression of Protestant piety,” Protestant Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber underlined at a meeting of delegations from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the EKD. The clerics met in Hamburg to discuss the word “image” from the Orthodox and Protestant points of view. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and EKD chairman Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm sent greetings and blessings to the Hamburg meeting.
Destroying image was most common in the immediate aftermath of the Reformation. In the first half of the sixteenth century, statues of the Virgin and the saints, stained-glass windows, organs and any objects associated with miracles and the supernatural were removed from Catholic churches and wayside chapels and in many cases destroyed. Switzerland, the Netherlands, England and southern Germany suffered particularly.
(Excerpt) Read more at thetablet.co.uk ...
They didn’t do it. Other people did.
Sigh.
Does every generation of Russia have to apologize for the czars...or Stalin?
How often has Mongolia apologized for Genghis Khan?
I guess I understand, but it sure seems to me people are owning up to a deed they didn’t do....only one Saviour exists in Christianity, and it isn’t this Bishop.
Wait, what??? They’re apologizing for eliminating idolatrous images?
Hey wow, I’m on the *receiving* end of one of these group apologies for once! Nice!
Seriously though, who goes around smashing statues anymore? Who is advocating this anymore? Why is this an issue?
The day I see the fearsome FR Calvinist brigades posts threads about which brand of crowbar works best on marble, then I’ll worry. :)
LOL..exactly. Too hard to confess your OWN sins.
I will not rest until the City of Rome apologizes for sacking Cominium in 293 B.C.
For marble, titanium crowbars are the gold standard, tough and light. One gets more smacks in before tiring. On that basis alone they’re worth the extra Euros.
;>)
Just some guy in New York City.......who's also one of our's........a priest in fact.....LOL!!
“They’re apologizing for eliminating idolatrous images?”
There were no idolatrous images. They’re apologizing for their stupid ancestors who mistook religious art for idolatrous images.
“Just some guy in New York City.......who’s also one of our’s........a priest in fact.....LOL!!”
Actually aren’t they just painting over those areas with the original design art instead?
Will Jesus now have to apologize for his ancient ancestor destroying the brazen serpent Moses made?
Hee hee. :)
Dang! Mea maxima culpa thinking only of conservative Protestants, and not the true inheritors of Vandalic fury: the liberal liturgical committee.
“Will Jesus now have to apologize for his ancient ancestor destroying the brazen serpent Moses made?”
No, because only human beings can apologize. God has no such capacity for He has no such need. Also, why would a perfect God apologize for the wrong doing - if that’s what it was - of a mere mortal sinful man? Wasn’t dying for Hezekiah’s sins enough?
When people got upset over the P**s Christ “art”, designed to offend Christians, I said “It is ONLY a piece of shaped brass in a bottle of urine. Nothing more!”
Even St Paul did not get upset over the nude statues of the Roman gods in Athens, but used the one empty alter “To the unknown god” to proclaim Jesus.
As I’ve said many times, the line between veneration of a statue and worshiping the statue is very fine.
“When people got upset over the P**s Christ “art”, designed to offend Christians, I said “It is ONLY a piece of shaped brass in a bottle of urine. Nothing more!””
Actually, it is something more.
“Even St Paul did not get upset over the nude statues of the Roman gods in Athens,”
Apparently you’ve never read the Bible. Acts 17:16: “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.”
“but used the one empty alter “To the unknown god” to proclaim Jesus.”
Altar, not “alter”.
“As I’ve said many times, the line between veneration of a statue and worshiping the statue is very fine.”
No, it is not. There is a huge difference between being struck by lightning and being struck by a lightning bug.
It is still nothing more than shaped brass. Break it apart and you will find brass. Nothing more. No deity hiding inside.
Take a doll, place a veil on it and proclaim it a religious statue, and someone will soon light a candle in front of it.
Now take a Barbie doll, place a veil on it proclaim it a religious icon and again, someone will light a candle and kneel before it.
Again, it gives the APPEARANCE of idolatry.
I often wonder, when Cortez forbade the worships of Aztec gods because it was Idolatry, then set up a small statue of the Madonna between them, and fell down before it in veneration, not worship, what did the Aztecs think?
“He worships his goddess, but we can’t worship our goddess”?
Again, just where is that fine line between honor (veneration) and worship of a statue?
I will not rest until Romulus apologizes to the Sabines.
Should all pictures, statues, tee shirts, etc. depicting Jesus be forbidden ?
No, I can still enjoy a religious statue or painting as art without falling down before it because I recognize it for what it is, art.
For the same reason I don’t fall down before the cute little pictures of bears and roosters or yard gnomes my wife has around the house.
As for church art, I see it as embellishment for a church, but not something to be venerated or worshiped. I find no where in the Bible where the Cherubim statues over the Ark were to be worshiped or venerated. Even the brass pillars were given names but no one worshiped them.
You were wrong about St. Paul not being bothered about the idols in Athens. The fact that you go on and on as if you had not made such an obvious and telling error just reinforces the well earned reputation of anti-Catholics.
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