europe

While I have had a long-term love of history, my understanding of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries has always been sketchy and superficial.

It went something like this: (1) the Catholic Church allowed people to buy their way into heaven (via indulgences); (2) this made Martin Luther mad so he challenged the church by nailing his position on the door of the church (and he also wanted to get married) and so did John Calvin; (3) Henry VIII wanted a divorce but the pope wouldn't let him (which made him mad); (4) therefore, lots of Protestant churches came into being; and (5) the Puritans were part of one of them and they discovered America.

The truth of these statements was murky and the causal relationship between them was harder for me to understand than the theory of relativity.

I have a feeling I'm not alone. I knew it was all important, but trying to put it all together was beyond by ability. Well, now none of us need to do it alone, because Professor MacCulloch has written a history of the Reformation that is encyclopedic in scope and brilliant in its exectution. He fills in the gaps and clears up the many misconceptions.

This is not an easy book to read. But while MacCulloch doesn't make it easy, he avoids the jargon of the professional historian. That said, this is not a casual beach read--it demands a careful and thoughtful reading. And the rewards are great. For the first time, I have a real clue why the reform movement took off is so many ways and in so many places. I have a far better idea of the relationships between and among men like Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Cramner and so many more. I also now understand that the Reformation was not a linear, coordinated event, but was often chaotic and filled with both both greatness and pettiness.

In our secular world, we tend to view the political history of the past in secular terms (or at least in terms where religion is relegated to being merely one factor among many). MacCulloch quite rightly makes it clear that, while many factors contributed, for example, to the 30 Years' War, in the end it was all about religion.

This is a wonderful book that will illuminate and clarify history for anyone diligent enough to really read it. Highly recommended

Academics don't need a review of this book and might not need to read it. However, if you are a student of history, particularly American History, you should read this. If you understand that we are a political/social experiment to test the ideas of the Reformation, this book will show you where this "City on a hill" came from. It will make many Americans aware of how and why separation of church and state is so central to our system. It will give you some food for thinking about what has happened in the past 300 years.

Do you know what a Protestant is? A Roman Catholic? An Anabaptist? Do you have any idea how important Jewish thought was to the Reformation? How did Reformation era thinking inform our political philosophy? Which version of the 10 Commandments is at issue in some schools and government offices? Did you even know that there are at least two "official" versions? This book shows how a million doubts and questions were addressed by some great and courageous thinkers and how the debates changed the world.

In a very direct way, ordinary Europeans began to trust thinking outside the box (Church) during the Reformation. The imperative to put ideas into action was part of the revolution in thinking and drove many communities to gather themselves to remake their societies. Many of them came here. Did you ever wonder why so many religious communities came to colonize North America and were so careful not to allow us to become a Theocracy?

This book manages to show a huge variety of the different trains of thought, all of which are different, all of which fall under the definition of Reformation.

I've studied the history of thoughts and communities MacCulloch characterizes so well here. I am astonished that he dared to write this book and amazed that he pulled it off. I wish I had written it, or that I could have.

It is dense, about 700 pages that will seem like 7000 to some people, but I couldn't put it down. I keep wondering what Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli and my immigrant ancestors would say about 2004. I an sure they would be unhappy that we no longer engage in their level of debate but that can change.

This book deservedly joins the classics by Euan Cameron and Owen Chadwick on the Reformation. It looks at it as it really happened - this is based on solid scholarship and years of careful research. Those wanting a more partisan history will not find it here (my own FIVE LEADING REFORMERS should be more to the tastes of those that do) but as an objective work, looking at the Reformation in the wider context of European, and later global,history, this book cannot be bettered. For those of us who loved this author's CRANMER and then his TUDOR CHURCH MILITANT, this is the big book from him for which we have all been waiting. Make sure your library has a copy, and that your professor and/or pastor have read it. Christopher Catherwood, author of FIVE LEADING REFORMERS (CFP, 2000) and of CHRISTIANS MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)