April 18, 1997

Dear John,

I can’t begin to relate my obsession about the religious artwork concept I have been developing over the past year .

I have been reading a lot about the development of religious thought.  I read the Dead Sea Scrolls; read about the Native American and Native African spiritual cosmology.  I already had a fairly decent background knowledge of Hindu, Tao and Buddha.  Then I decided to narrow my focus to the development of Western Civilization’s Religious Thought and Development; to the development of Christianity, to the historical development of the institutions that have promoted Christian thought. 

After considerable research and introspection and after challenging my creative abilities to find a moving expression of that precise moment in the history of Western spiritual thought when someone first raised serious questions about the true spirituality of organized Western religion, I conceived the church door idea. 

I honestly believe this to be a serious work of art; one that is intentionally provocative, as large as life.  I believe the piece has a multi-layered message and that it will force people to think, even some to adjust their personal religious paradigm.

Picture a real statue of Mary exploding  head first  through a splintered hole in the church door, propelled by some poltergeist  who is very active behind that door, inside the church!  On the outside of the door is nailed the 95 theses of Martin Luther.  The artpiece is titled “Reformation I”.

(I’m calling it “Reformation I” because I have ideas for II and III already.)

The door will be dark stained-oak, probably 4 feet wide and 7 feet high, with somewhat ornate edging (“dental work”), with a relief mounted Cross centered on the top third of it, perhaps from a different, lighter, more exotic wood.  The door will have a brass strike plate, a very large keyhole on the plate, and a brass pull ring to open the door.  There will be no door knob.

The statue of Mary will be large, to scale with the door.  It will look as if we are witnessing the moment the statue is bursting through the door.  I foresee you making the door, then weakening a spot behind the front surface of the door at the location where you want the statue to burst, then putting a metal striking plate over the weakened area and smashing it with a sledge hammer to get the proper effect.  The brass plate door striker should also be affected.

There will be low voltage halogen lights behind the door, enclosed in a light box that will also serve as a hanging structure to a wall surface.  These lights will shine on mirrors that are strategically placed inside the light box so that strong beams of light will shine through the opening created by the bursting statue as well as through the keyhole.  The light fixtures will be located so they are easily changed without having to take down the artpiece (through a trap door on the sides and bottom of the light box).

When the door is displayed, I foresee two beams of light supplied from a track light source that is focused only  on the papers (representing the 95 theses) that are nailed to the door and on the head of Mary.  No other lighting is required, I believe. 

The papers are made of a very strong and thick paper, similar in size, color and thickness to the paper used by the original Gutenberg press operators.  The viewer will see the top sheet, which will have the number “95” very large and evident.  I also see the name of Martin Luther at the bottom right side of the top paper.  (As an aside, and something for you to think about and give me your studied artistic opinion, is the inclusion of moveable typeset letters on the door...you know....the wood cubes that have metal reinforcement on their striking surface that were the heart of Gutenberg’s invention.....see the Exhibit below as to why.

The reason for this artistic concept and representation is based on my research of the early Roman church.  Goes like this.... Remember how the Christians headed to the catacombs in Rome in order to escape persecution by the pagan Romans?  The next thing we know was the Christians coming out and conducting their services above ground without persecution.  Why?  A deal was struck between the pagans and the early Christian leadership.

The deal was....(Christians speaking here) “OK.  You pagans worship many gods.  These gods are represented by various revered statues and assorted icons.  We Christians worship one God.  We don’t use icons in our services.  But, from now on we will use icons so that our services look similar to yours.  Then the rank and file pagans will think you won the battle of the gods and we’ll co-exist without having to be headliners at the Coliseum.”  So from that point on, Mary, Joseph, assorted saints, and the Cross were among the icons used in Christian ceremonies above ground.

Mary (as an icon) is of particular interest because of the way her persona was cultivated by the Roman Church.  The Church hierarchy had to make a tidy logical argument about a virgin birth in order to support and embellish the deity of Christ.  Further, Mary’s death and rise to heaven had to be superhuman.  Fact is, Mary should’ve been stoned to death for conceiving Christ during her “virgin period”.  That was Jewish custom and law.  People married young then, and it was not uncommon for a girl to be given to a man by her father when she was as young as 9 or 10.  The young woman and man were programmed to be husband and wife, and were treated as such by their community.  It was also the Jewish custom that the marriage was not  physically consummated  for up to 3 years after the betrothal.  Thus, the married female was expected to be a virgin in every sense.   If she was found not to be a virgin, she was taken outside the city and stoned to death.  Considering this custom, it is entirely possible that Mary conceived during this period where her marriage to Joseph was not to be physically consummated, and therefore it was a “virgin birth”! 

Luther and the Protestant intellectuals knew this and held that whether Mary was a virgin was not an issue of dogma; rather the issue was a distraction from the real business of organized religion, that is, the fostering and nourishing of a directly-connected spirituality.

The Roman Church hierarchy was not satisfied with the virgin birth concept alone.  They persisted in their attempts to elevate Mary’s persona by promoting her unique ascension into heaven (feast of the Assumption, a “holy day of obligation”).  Further, the Romans insisted that if any Christian did not accept this new dogma, they would suffer eternal damnation.  When the Roman hierarchy was questioned about the legitimacy of such a proclamation, they responded that the Pope’s authority was “infallible”. 

Luther held that this elevation of Mary was unnecessary and a “distraction” to the real purpose of the ways of Christ; further, that iconoclasty was paganism and the Pope was not infallible.

In addition, Luther objected to the Roman church's emphasis of building St. Peter's Basilica and emphasizing other church iconoclasty from the money collected by selling "indulgences" (the pardon of sins in exchange for money) to honest, God-fearing, semi-literate Germans. That is, he objected to the emphasis the Roman church placed on empire building at the expense of individual soul nourishment.  (What a racket!  Make a rule...like the feast of the Assumption....that the church-goers must follow.  If they don’t follow the rule, then they sin.  However, they can have their sins “forgiven” by ponying up money to the Church for an indulgence, a forgiveness of their sin.  The money is then put to use for the building funds, or the acquisition of art objects!)  Somehow, the real purpose of organized religion in Luther’s time had degenerated into a corrupt wealth-building scheme.  Luther objected to all this.

Exhibit  A published thesis, abridged

The Importance of Propaganda in the Lutheran Reformation

by Daniel Blumberg

 The Dalton School

 (abridged by MJ Pulaski)

In 1450, a great revolution was started by Johann Gutenberg inventor of movable type, a new printing technique that made printing a much less arduous procedure and allowed information to reach large audiences in a much easier fashion. A second revolution was initiated by Martin Luther, a cleric who, infuriated with church corruption, started the Protestant Reformation.  The Reformation destroyed the universal Roman Catholic Church, created many new sects of  Christianity and ended the Pope's virtual control over northern Europe. I plan to prove that without the availability of printed works and pamphlets provided by Gutenberg's invention of movable type, Luther's Reformation could not have occurred.

Prior to Luther, there had been a rash of Church controversies which gave rise to cynics and disbelievers in the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church, such as the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism. There were also accusations of corruption within the church, such as nepotism, simony, wild superstitions, and a growing pattern of clerical worldliness which further alienated Europeans. Many people announced open opposition to the Pope and the Church.

Printing greatly expanded Luther's potential audience and Luther used the printing press with enthusiasm. His best selling printed work was the German Testament, his translation of the Bible into German. Although the price of the German Testament was originally the equivalent of 150 kilograms of wheat, 2 butchered sheep, and 430 eggs, printers had no trouble selling their copies. (Edwards 123) Thus, the German public demonstrated the intense desire of the common people to own a copy of the Bible and read it on their own.

Luther spread his message by printing more pamphlets than any one else during his lifetime.  Pamphlets were an obvious tool for the spread of information because they were handy, cheap, short, could be easily advertised, printed, transported, they had provoking title pages, and were small enough to be hidden from Catholic authorities. (Edwards 15) It is for this reason, among others, that the Reformation would not be an elitist movement; rather, says New, it "became a mass movement, involving all classes down to the scarcely literate.

It is certainly not coincidental that the height of the Reformation and the height of pamphlet production came at the same time. In fact, from 1517, the first year of the Reformation, to 1518 there was a 530% increase in pamphlet production. It seems that even Luther was surprised by the massive spread of his words through the printing press. In "Against Hanswurst" (1541) Luther remarked on the spread of his 95 theses denouncing Tetzel's sale of indulgences. Luther said, "So my theses against Tetzel's articles, which you can now see in print, were published. They went throughout the whole of Germany in a fortnight, for the whole world complained about indulgences, and particularly about Tetzel's articles." As well, in 1518, before Luther would learn the full importance of the press he remarked, "It is a mystery to me how my theses... were spread to so many places.  They were meant exclusively for our academic circle here." (Spitz 88)

If Luther hadn't craftfully targeted the right audience for his works his revolution may not have been so widespread. Luther decided to print the majority of his works in the vernacular, German, rather than Latin. As previously mentioned those few who could read seldom read Latin, so Luther's stress on the vernacular was very instrumental because it transformed the Reformation from a revolution enkindled by Luther's "academic circle" to one that involved all of Germany's social classes.

Due to Luther's Reformation the ratio of German to Latin pamphlets between the years of 1519 to 1521 reversed itself.  Originally there were three Latin pamphlets per one German pamphlet. In 1521 there were three German per one Latin pamphlet. In the same period of time the number of German pamphlets published increased sevenfold. (Edwards 21) Luther also issued more than eleven times the amount of German printings and reprintings and had more than 4.5 distinct German editions than the next evangelical publicist (Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt.) (Edwards 26) This massive use of vernacular writings is described by Edwards as "the West's first large-scale media campaign."

And so it goes.

Peace.

Mike