Luther and the Arts

I once again found the reading to be a great reminder of the joy and priviledge of singing songs of praise to God. Martin Luther makes an excellent point in showing that we join in the great line of history that includes "the prophets and kings of the old testament..."(pg39), Moses and Paul (pg 40) in a long-standing tradition of making it "that Christ is our praise and song, and that we ought to know nothing to sing or say but what Paul says, 1 Cor. 2, that Jesus Christ is our Savior." (pg 40). This again speaks to the "church language" that we discussed yesterday in class. It is interesting to me that Luther also suggests that some form of Christian music be created to "make them [young people] abandon love tunes and carnal songs and in their place learn something wholesome, and thus fill the good with pleasure, as is best for the young." Here, Luther really gets to the heart of hymns, that they use the truth of God to draw our affections upward toward Him and away from that which is worldly and carnal.