Law & Grace

Between October 11, 2016 and January 16, 2017 the Pitts Theology Library and four Central German museums proudly brought you the exhibition Martin Luther, Lucas Cranach, and the Promise of Salvation, based on Cranach's famous image of the Reformation, Law and Grace. It was sponsored by the German Federal Foreign Office and the Halle Foundation in Atlanta. Through this image Cranach illustrated the essence of Luther's message, that faith is the only way to receive God's gift of grace. With the help of highlights from German museums and the Pitts Theology Library's Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection, the exhibition explored Cranach's masterpiece and explained its cultural and historic impact through the ages, up to the champions of costly grace, Berlin's Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Atlanta's Martin Luther King, Jr. This volume is more than a catalogue and documentation of this fitting prelude to the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Luther's Ninetyfive Theses in the show, elaborating and expanding on the profound ramifications of early Reformation art, history and theology down to the present day.