tangible, vivid, cinematic

"The most important artist of the counter reformation because [Caravaggio] reinvented religious art."

protestant aesthetic

Caspar Netscher [1639-1684], The Lace-Maker, 1662

protestant sloth ethic

"Do as little as possible and that unwillingly for it is better to receive a slight reprimand than it is to perform an arduous task." Plus the corollary: "An awful lot of life's problems solve themselves if you just leave them be."

- Michael Lewis [born 1960] on what may or not be on his family coat of arms.

An earlier reference to Michael Lewis here.

An earlier reference to the Protestantism here.

What should I do to save myself?

Published in 1678, The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan [1628-1688] is a Christian allegory. Innovative because it was the first book to combine "a ripping yarn with the Gospel truth." 

A poor tinker, Bunyan was a pioneer of the extension of the diary to spiritual autobiography and laid the groundwork for the novel.

From depression to rebirth; textbook guide to salvation. If a wretched sinner like Bunyan could be saved, there was hope for all.

Idolatry

Sebastiano Ricci [1659-1734], Solomon's Idolatry

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 

- Book of Exodus 20:4

"This particular command resonates, because images became the symbol of the great confidence trick, which the old Roman Catholic Church had played. It had got people to spend money on these things. It had got people to direct worship towards the statue instead of the divine thing behind it, and that became the great blasphemy."

- Diarmaid MacCulloch [born 1951]

Iconoclasm, Greek for "image-breaking", is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments.

"Destruction of art under the banner of religious fundamentalism."

Wedgewood

Josiah Wedgewood [1730-1795] was a Protestant capitalist pioneer. He brought into existence a pottery union that would help people when they were ill, for example. Whole families worked for him, which would not have happened had he not been a good employer.

Update: After 250 years, Wedgewood has filed for bankruptcy protection. More here.

Elect of Damned?

John Calvin [1509-1564]

"You probably wouldn't have a good night out with Calvin, who was austere, serious, concentrated; but you would with Luther."

- Diarmaid McCulloch [born 1951]

Calvin's Predestination taught that the Catholic route to Heaven was hopelessly awry; Calvin's Protestants believed that a select few were chosen and that the rest were cast into hell.

Wealth was the best evidence of God's favor; private and spiritual capital were linked.

Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790] popularized the Protestant work ethic:

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

More Franklin here.

turmoil

"I scrupulously carried out the penances which were alloted to me; and yet my conscience kept nagging. You fell short there; you were not sorry enough; you left that sin off your list."

Martin Luther's [1483-1546] blinding revelation: Sola fide [Latin: by faith alone].

He translated the Bible from Latin into everyday German; he replaced a hierarchy of Roman Catholic priests with a priesthood of all believers; answerable to God, not to Rome. Spiritual equality.