The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation [Paperback]

Cynthia A Shearer (Author), Robert G Shearer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1882514114 | ISBN-13: 978-1882514113 | Publication Date: January 1, 1998

A study guide with background information, discussion questions, and suggested activities to accompany Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation. Integrates the readings from the Famous Men books with Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation and the DK Eyewitness Renaissance book. Use this guide to help you study this time period and make sense of it within the Christian world view.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cyndy Shearer received a BA in English (summa cum laude) from Queens College in Charlotte, NC, and an MA in English from the University of Virginia. She has taught elementary, high school, and college students, and has been a homeschooling mother since 1985. Rob and Cyndy Shearer live with their children near the town of Lebanon in middle Tennessee.

Product Details

• Paperback: 62 pages
• Publisher: Greenleaf Press (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882514114
• ISBN-13: 978-1882514113
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Would have been much better without the extraneous religious commentary, September 25, 2006

By 

Shopper in Richmond (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation (Paperback)

Please, read this book before you give it to your children. There is a bias running throughout. I don't know whether to call it "politically correct" or "anti Christian" or what. Here's an example from the chapter on St. Francis and St. Dominic, which begins thus:

"There is a sad fact about the institutions which men found. No matter how clearly the founders may state the goals, eventually high purposes degenerate and organizations develop bureaucracies whose main goal seems to be to preserve their own existence and power. The church [sic] is affected by this tendency as well. Every so often in the Middle Ages, someone noticed that the church was in need of reform. Benedict had withdrawn from Rome and founded his monastery... Hildebrand, another monk, led a reform movement... A few hundred years later, two more reformers arose. Their movements led to the founding of two new and different kinds of monastic orders (in another two hundred years, a German monk named Martin Luther would lead another reform movement...)

...The first reformer was named Francis."

My jaw dropped when I read this. I have honestly never seen St. Benedict, Hildebrand (aka Pope St. Gregory VII) and St. Francis listed on the same page with Martin Luther as "reformers." Furthermore, those who believe that the Church was established not by a man but by God might be taken aback by the author's impertinent commentary. Why couldn't the book just factually state what St. Francis did, rather than pontificate on the nature of religious institutions?

I just did not feel comfortable with the tone of this book. Like another book in the series, "Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation," it offers too much conjecture and commentary on religion. If you are religious yourself (or just someone who could do without the distracting comments), you might want to pass on this book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent an informative guide to the 'famous men'., February 24, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Lebanon, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation (Paperback)

The Shearer duo has produced a valuable history of the Renaissance and Reformation by doing biographies on the leading men of the time. The biographies are very readable, and contain narrative, pictures and primary source quotes which together give an excellent overview of the man, his family and the time. This book, coupled with 'Famous Men of the Middle Ages', provides the student (Junior High and up) with a foundation of knowledge concerning the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History comes to life, May 19, 2006

By 

Mrs W. (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation (Paperback)

I have appreciated the approach to History that the Shearers provide. The idea of meeting people via their text and supoprting fiction and non-fiction literature is so much more interesting than the History Textbooks I grew up with. It has been a wonderful education for, not just my children, but for me. We have learned of interesting historical people and then had a person on who we could associate facts.