The Reformation
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3.6 • 17 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The National Book Critics Circle Award–winning history of the Reformation—from the New York Times bestselling author of Christianity
At a time when men and women were prepared to kill—and be killed—for their faith, the Protestant Reformation tore the Western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch's award-winning history brilliantly re-creates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars, and politicians—from the zealous Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses to the polemical John Calvin to the radical Igantius Loyola, from the tortured Thomas Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.
Drawing together the many strands of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives—overturning ideas of love, sex, death, and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Many standard histories of Christianity chronicle the Reformation as a single, momentous period in the history of the Church. According to those accounts, a number of competing groups of reformers challenged a monolithic and corrupt Roman Catholicism over issues ranging from authority and the role of the priests to the interpretation of the Eucharist and the use of the Bible in church. In this wide-ranging, richly layered and captivating study of the Reformation, MacCulloch challenges traditional interpretations, arguing instead that there were many reformations. Arranging his history in chronological fashion, MacCulloch provides in-depth studies of reform movements in central, northern and southern Europe and examines the influences that politics and geography had on such groups. He challenges common assumptions about the relationships between Catholic priests and laity, arguing that in some cases Protestantism actually took away religious authority from laypeople rather than putting it in their hands. In addition, he helpfully points out that even within various groups of reformers there was scarcely agreement about ways to change the Church. MacCulloch offers valuable and engaging portraits of key personalities of the Reformation, including Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin. More than a history of the Reformation, MacCulloch's study examines its legacy of individual religious authority and autonomous biblical interpretation. This spectacular intellectual history reminds us that the Reformation grew out of the Renaissance, and provides a compelling glimpse of the cultural currents that formed the background to reform. MacCulloch's magisterial book should become the definitive history of the Reformation.
Customer Reviews
Excellent book. Ignore the religious zealots who don’t like the title
Excellent book. Seems odd to have to say this, but please ignore the apparently xenophobic Roman Catholic reviewer who disputes the term “Reformation” since it offends his religious biases. This is a work of history, and a good one.
GREAT ERRORS
A reformation is by definition to change or improve, however Martin Luther and his ilk strictly wanted to leave the Roman Catholic Church and form their own churches and do whatever they believed or wanted to minus the influence of the Papal Authority. Thus it should be labed the Protestant Revolution not the ill used Protestant Reformation label. Just remember, the bigest racists are the people, who label those who oppose their view poinsts as racist because this is their only defense, when facts do not suppor their arguments, and they wish to censor oppositon by labeling.