The thirty-nine essays in this volume are drawn from the third annual Reformation Research Consortium (RefoRC) conference held in Berlin in 2013. This conference looked at anthropology in the period of the Reformation and featured interdisciplinary discussions of anthropological questions of importance. Focuses were to ask for “the (pre)conditions of the reformatory process, its historical embedment and transformative dynamics with regard to the establishment and the debates on anthropological concepts and their changes in the age of Reformation” (11). The wide-ranging pieces here draw on the fields of medicine, musicology, history, literature, art history, politics, ethics, theology and the history of religion to present a sweeping panorama of anthropological concerns and viewpoints that swirled in this era. The advantage of this approach is that it enables the various perspectives to provide studies of the human condition (condition humana) in relation to vital overarching concerns: the relation of body and soul, definitions of self-consciousness, knowledge or the understanding of free will, to concepts of body and theories of passions or emotions.
This ambitious agenda makes the volume of special interest to historians and theologians. It opens issues of Christian thought to wider currents and disciplines which have their own perceptions on anthropology. Relatedly, the book asks in what ways did theological debates about the human condition find resonance in art, poetry, literature, music, scientific knowledge? Correlatively, there is interest here in the interrelations and “reciprocal transfer of concepts and ideas” (12) in the wake of Reformation in relation to various dimensions of political and social thought, and practical impacts on the lives of persons to determine how they should live as Christians and what they should do (ethics).
The studies here are all rich and deep. They are divided into nine sections: 1) Dimensions of Anthropological Reformations: Keynote-Lectures; 2) Reformations of Body and Soul; 3) Images of Reformation and Religious Imaginations; 4) Subjectivity, Freedom of Will and Faith: Ethical Questions; 5) Reformation of Church and Religious Practices; 6) Political Theology and Anthropological Reforms of Pedagogy; 7) Exemplary Studies: The Self-understanding of Reformation; 8) Reforms in the Art of Writing: Literary approaches; and 9) Ethnology in the Light of Reformation.
Focused theological studies include Anna Vind's “The Human Being according to Luther.” Vind helpfully concludes that for Luther, the Christian's emphasis should not be on the “self” but on the external Word, the worship of Christ: “Through the daily service to God in faith in Christ which is exercised in the believer, the latter learns to appreciate and praise that according to God's promise he will be deeply—though, and this is important, invisibly, insensibly and incomprehensibly to himself, yet at the same time accessibly—affected by the presence of Christ and thus be set free from himself to serve his neighbour” (85).
Kyle Dieleman presents “Body and Resurrection in Calvin's Commentaries.” Dieleman notes the long perception that Calvin was “a dualist whose anthropology elevated the soul and denigrated the physical body” (157). Calvin was considered a Platonist and Dieleman mentions Alida Sewell's count of Calvin's ninety-one usages of Plato's “prison” metaphor in relation to the body. But Dieleman widens the net of Calvin's writings from the usually studied Institutes, to examine his commentaries on key passages: 2 Corinthians 5, Genesis 2, Philippians 3, and 1 Thessalonians 4 where Calvin sees the body as being a key aspect of the final resurrection. Dieleman finds that “indeed, at the final resurrection, Calvin argues, the body will be raised, restored, and perfectly united to the soul. Any examination of Calvin's anthropology must take into account the role of the body in the final resurrection, and such an examination leads one to a surprisingly positive understanding of the body in Calvin's anthropology” (158). While Calvin had a dualist view of humanity as composed of body and soul, his commentaries show that he saw these as operating together, with the human being incomplete when this does not happen. Calvin's language about the body's weak and corruptible state emerges from his view of humanity's fall into sin. But the physical body itself, as created by God, is good—and is in need of the transforming power of God's grace to reestablish it to its original state. In the final resurrection, body and soul will be reunited; and humanity will be restored to its created wholeness. So, “Calvin is a dualist, to be sure, but his view of the body taken from his commentaries should not be seen as overly negative but, on the contrary, as rather affirming” (164).
Among other contributions of particular interest are Barbara Pitkin's, “Human Nature in Calvin's Commentary on Seneca,” Maria Lucia Weigel's, “Light as a Metaphor in Protestant Prints,” and Gregory B. Graybill's, “Dialectics as Catalyst: The Role of Aristotelian Logic in the Development of Melanchthon's Doctrine of the Will.”
In terms of “Reformation and Religious Practices,” Anna Michalska's “Churches for People: Protestant Search for the New Liturgical Space in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century” discusses the problem of the protestant search for new liturgical space which became a pioneering effort for the development of protestant church architecture. Changed theological realities in the Reformation made it necessary for protestants to construct new objects, as well rebuild medieval ones to meet the new religious needs of the people. Anthropologically, it entailed “a new way of thinking about social relations, personal religiousness, and everyday life” (349).
These short mentions of some pieces can serve as a springboard to exploring the wider riches of this highly interesting volume. Its range of topics witnesses to the breadth and complexities of the deep dimensions of the anthropological reformations which the Reformation fostered. These extended in nearly every dimension one can imagine! The essays here expand the reader's horizons, introducing different perspectives which certainly enrich our overall perceptions.
