I have researched and created a three-month project proposal on which I intend to work in Marburg, Germany working simultaneously with the Architectural Institute and Ecclesiastical Art at the Philipps University Marburg. The relationship between the Reformation & Image is currently a theme that will come up during this Luther Decade 500 year celebration of freedom in Wittenberg. My focus will be to recognize Gutenberg, Cranach and Luther who were a part of this crucial period in time.
I got to participate with a group of theological students in a preaching-slam, which happened to be their first undertaking.Went through a all-day workshop on Friday and Saturday till the 8pm that night when it was time for performing. There was a great turn out. The goal of the slam was to take a story in the Bible, a verse and tell it in poetic, prose, metaphorically way; but making it relevant to the unchurched person. I chose Song of Solomon and used a repeated refrain in my dialogue poem between the man/God and woman. Text upon request!
Here is a clip of the preaching-slam by one of the students from the school. Her name is Sara.
This town felt warm and welcoming as I got off the train, taking a quick walkabout the town before checking into my hotel. Eisenach is not as flat as Wittenberg, but not as hilly as Marburg, so the in between does exist!=) The main attractions in Eisenach are: The Wartburg Castle, Johann Sebastian Bach and the Luther House, which is much smaller in comparison to the one in Wittenberg but it did have tons of written, visual and audio understandings of the time period, Luther’s theology and supporters’ of the Reformation.
St. Nikolai Kirche
My first visit was actually not my sights for visiting, it was a historical church (evangelical church) that is now more modern in liturgy and worship. The church is called St. Nikolai. It was built in Thüringen during the Romantic period in 1180. This church was the half waypoint of the Benedictines Cloister, one of the oldest and meaningful cloisters’ out of the 7 well-known in Eisenach.
St. Nikolai has well sized pipe organ and mix of old and modern artwork still visible. The particular artwork that gets’ the prominence is the Altar piece. It was created in 16 hundreds, the author is unknown, in a small town carpentry shop outside of Eisenach. The theme of the art piece is centered on the burial of Christ (which is centered in the middle). On the left side is Bishop Nikolaus (erected around 350 ad.) and the right side shows Jacob the apostle.
While visiting there, I got to know the sexton of the church. She gave me the brief history of the church and the recent visitation of Pastor Schneider, from the EKD, who came and spoke and had to unfortunately let-go a pastor because of financial circumstances. This topic seemed to really affect the sexton. The sexton feels that cuts because of financial circumstances should start from the top and not the bottom; to not stop the ministry that interacts with the people directly because they are more important than someone maintaining status up top. The problem in the east side of Germany is that there is no money there for the church to exist or do ministry because it is and was such a more secular area than on the west side when the wall was erected. A student told me that there many young pastors ready for ministry but not enough money for them to live and serve the church as it should.
Die Wartburg
As you can see from my pictures below how high, long and tiring the walk was up the hill to the Wartburg Castle; but once I got up there, boy, I was happy and definitely took my time browsing the place. I met an older couple on the way and we encouraged one another; and because of that victory the husband took my camera from me and made sure I had a picture with myself in it.
I got to see where Jünker Jorg/Martin Luther worked and the splash of ink on the wall they claim is from him. There was a lot of history about St. Elisabeth who had some dwellings there that took up most of what the tour guide shared.
The Bach Haus
I briefly visited just because this man was beyond his time just like Luther, but with music. Sat in on a presentation of various pianos/harpsichord of Bach’s day. Bach’s many children and wives which he loved. The tragedy of his first wife was when he went away for work, he came back and his wife, unknown for what reason, died.
The Bach’s house also had a level where you can hear the many musicals of his day, not just by him, but by other famous composers as well. There was also modern day orchestra, opera, ensemble music, or the new Bachs’ of today available to hear and purchase. There was a statement that Bach’s music tended to reflect some of Luther’s sermons because he loved them so much.
Painting update!
I have the outward panel almost done (some finishing touches), now working on the inside panel!
