The Beauty of Belief - (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History) by Róisín Watson (Paperback)

About the Book

The Beauty of Belief charts the evolution of Lutheran visual culture in the Duchy of Württemberg in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and challenges current assumptions that churches in southwest Germany remained shaped by iconoclasm.

Book Synopsis

The Beauty of Belief sheds new light on Lutheran relationships with ecclesiastical decoration in southwest Germany following the Duchy of Württemberg's Reformation in 1534. Based on extensive original archival research and engagement with surviving images and objects, Róisín Watson compellingly demonstrates how Lutherans moved away from initial acts of iconoclasm and towards embracing the possibilities of the religious image in their devotional routines. She explores the interactions of Württemberg rulers, pastors, and congregations with their ecclesiastical spaces across the political upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In doing so, this book tells not only the story of the visual culture of the Reformation, but an account of Württemberg's Reformation itself.

About the Author

Róisín Watson is a cultural historian of early modern Germany. Following her Ph.D. at the University of St Andrews, she lectured at the University of Oxford before joining The Open University as a Lecturer in Early Modern History. She publishes research on religion and visual cultures.