[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Don’t forget, the Protestants of the Reformation often hated beautiful things.”

Reactions to sin often swing to the other extreme. Doesn’t make either right.

[MrChips]

Reactions to sin? Oh please. The Reformation in England was neither popular nor necessary. It was imposed upon a good people.

[vladimir998]

“Reactions to sin often swing to the other extreme. Doesn’t make either right.”

There was no sin in producing beautiful religious art that raised people’s spirits. Catholics were right to produce the art. Protestants were wrong to destroy it.

[edwinland]

““Don’t forget, the Protestants of the Reformation often hated beautiful things.”

Reactions to sin often swing to the other extreme. Doesn’t make either right.”

Sorry but you need to be more specific. Beauty is not sinful. If you want to say that reformers were reacting to abuses of authority and etc. in the church, and in their blind rage they became extreme and also attacked beautiful art that was designed to help people meditate on the glory of God, I get it. But even so it sure calls into question the motives behind their initial reaction.

[RobbyS]

I say it was a reaction to despair, as was the Renaissance in a different way. The Black Death ended centuries of material growth in Europe and made many people look back with longing to the ancient world. Others, of course. escaped into superstition. The Witchcraft hysteria came about because there WERE witches, country people who revived ancient paganism because Christ seems to have failed them. The upper class tended to look back with more favor to the Augustan age and to ignore the achievements of the High Middle Ages, including investments in machinery that greatly exceeded that of the classical period with its dependence of slavery.