The Reformation was a seismic event in European history, one which left an indelible mark on the modern world. In this Very Short Introduction, Peter Marshall illuminates the causes and consequences of this pivotal movement in western Christianity. The Reformation began as an argument about what Christians needed to do to be saved, but rapidly engulfed society in a series of fundamental changes. This book provides a lively and up-to-date guide that explains doctrinal debates in a clear and non-technical way, but also explores the effects the Reformation had on politics, society, art, and minorities. Marshall argues that the Reformation was not a solely European phenomenon, but that varieties of faith exported from Europe transformed Christianity into a truly world religion. The complex legacy of the Reformation is also assessed. Its religious fervor produced remarkable stories of sanctity and heroism, and some extraordinary artistic achievements. But violence, holy war, and martyrdom were equally its products. A paradox of the Reformation--that it intensified intolerance while establishing pluralism--is one we still wrestle with today.
The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction
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The Reformation: Questions for Consideration and Discussion
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Besser kann man es nicht machen [it couldn't be done better] Peter Blickle, Historische Zeitschrift It has hardly ever been told better Alec Ryrie, English Historical Review This is history as it should be written: meticulous, provocative and intelligent. By studying the past for its own sake, and on its own terms, it also illuminates the present and the future William Whyte, Church Times
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Reformation is one of the pivotal moments in all of World History, and not just history of Religion. It encompassed almost all of the Christendom, and its ramifications had been felt far beyond it. Most Christians today live in the palpable shadow of Reformation, and yet very few are completely aware of its extent and history. Although the full history is probably beyond any single book's reach, this very short introduction provides us with an excellent and informative overview. One of the things that I like the most about this book is the fact that it doesn't treat reformation in vacuum, but it rather puts it in context of other political and religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries. It also doesn't make the (protestant) reformation as much of a discontinuity as most people have come to think of it over the past few centuries, but it rather points out many points of contact and continuity within and without the Catholic Church in late Middle Ages. In fact, there is such a thing as Catholic reformation and this book dedicates a considerable amount of space to it. The book shuns two extreme views of reformation - as a completely societal development and as a purely religious one. It acknowledges the great importance that religion had in people's lives at the time, which can be very counterintuitive to many people today, but it also doesn't downplay the purely secular considerations as well. In fact, the distinction between the two would have been very hard to grasp for people at that time. The book also talks about the major figures of Protestant Reformation - Luther, Calvin and Zwingli - and discusses the contributions that each one of them made. The timeframe that this book covers is approximately that of late 15th century until the early 18th. As it is quite obvious, this is a lot of history to put in a single book, but Peter Marshall does a remarkable job of accentuating the highlights of that period that pertain to Reformation and does so with remarkable ease. The result is a book that is very readable and informative, and a good stepping stone for further exploration of this fascinating subject.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By John D. Sens
Format:Paperback
The casual reader of European history will likely have some familiarity with all of of the leading persons, events, and philosophies discussed by Peter Marshall. What distinguishes this book is that Marshall brings the material together in a convincing, rational overview. Marshall shows that the Reformation period was part of an ongoing balancing of religious and political power between and among the various interests. But that's not all. Marshall discusses society and the roles of art and music of the period in protestant and catholic venues.
The author assists the general reader by defining terms that may be strange by giving definitions in blunt, everyday English in parentheses such as "tonsure (shaved head)." Also the use of idiomatic expressions such as the possibility of something being done "being kicked into the high grass," or that bishops would no longer be able to "swan around" are delicious verbal tidbits along the way.
Yes, there is the British spelling which some complain about, but I like it. It adds something.
The author assists the general reader by defining terms that may be strange by giving definitions in blunt, everyday English in parentheses such as "tonsure (shaved head)." Also the use of idiomatic expressions such as the possibility of something being done "being kicked into the high grass," or that bishops would no longer be able to "swan around" are delicious verbal tidbits along the way.
Yes, there is the British spelling which some complain about, but I like it. It adds something.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Adam
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is the third book I have read in the Oxford Very Short Introduction series. And I continue to be impressed. I have done some reading on the reformation and taken two different History of Christian classes that included the reformation. But even at only 135 pages of content, this book was able to add to knowledge of the Reformation. The plan of this book is to debunk some of the myths while showing how much the different sides of the reformation really agreed. Here is the thesis statement from the book:
"Myths are not lies, but symbolically powerful articulations of sensed realities. It is probably safer to believe that all the myths about the Reformation are true, rather than that none of them are. The goal of producing a totally unmythologized account of the Reformation may be an unachievable, or even an undesirable, one. Nonetheless, this little book - drawing on the best, not always impartial, modern scholarship - will attempt to explain what sort of phenomenon the Reformation was, to assess its impact across religious, political, social, and cultural areas of life, and the character of its legacy to the modern world."
What I most appreciated was the focus on the areas of agreement theologically. Without glossing over areas of disagreement, the areas of disagreement were often exemplified by a "mentality widespread in the Reformation era, and still with us in various secular and religious guises: a desire to shore up the identity of the majority group by stereotyping and dehumanizing an excluded minority."
The book starts with a brief history of the Reformation. Marshall takes a broad view of what the Reformation consisted of, so it looks at Luther to the mid 1700 when the main religious wars of Europe were concluding. In many ways, a brief overview history like this can be better than the detailed history that can occasionally lose the forest for the trees.
The rest of the book spends times looking at how the Reformation affected the understanding of Salvation, the politics of Europe, the formation of society and culture, the way that Christianity look at others outside of Christianity and the legacy of the Reformation.
For me, the two most interesting parts were the view of salvation and culture. Marshall starts with discussion of salvation with this quote:
"The Christian metanarrative hinges on two fixed points of reference. Humanity lost the friendship of God through an act of primordial rebellion: the `Fall' of Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world, an `original sin' that marked and stained the natures of their descendants henceforth. But God himself took the initiative in restoring that friendship, assuming a human identity in Christ, who, in an ultimate act of love and sacrifice, suffered death on the cross and `atoned' for Adam's sin. The door to Salvation, shut in the Garden of Eden, was potentially open once more. This much was agreed by all mainstream thinkers of the Reformation era. Contention raged over how individual Christians might actually proceed through that door, the role of the Church in preparing them to do so, and whether the door was open for all or just for a few."
It may not be clear in that quote, but Marshall includes the Catholic theologians of the era as agreeing and has a good section on the Council of Trent and why in most areas Catholics and Protestants agreed about much of their theology.
It is interesting to me that culture was one of the areas that was more likely to have real disagreements. Principally this is because of different understandings of the role of art. I knew that Luther wrote a lot of hymns and encouraged congregational singing. But I did not know that was an innovation. Prior to Luther, there was choral singing, but it was not in the church. Luther moved choral singing into the church as part of worship. But many other of the arts did not have a similar advantage. Visual arts were mostly banned from Protestant churches because of a difference of opinion about the first commandment. (Protestants tend to view "you shall make no graven images" as the second commandment. While Catholics tend to view it as a modifier on the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me".) So early Protestants (and some today) view any artistic representation of not only God, but any visual art as suspect because it is creating an image. This is not that much unlike the difference between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic church 800 years earlier, with the Roman Catholics on the opposite side.
On the whole, this was a very good introduction to the Reformation and I think did a good job of minimizing some of the mythology of the protestant world that is still perpetuated and still is detrimental toward proper understanding of Catholics as part of the universal body of Christ.
"Myths are not lies, but symbolically powerful articulations of sensed realities. It is probably safer to believe that all the myths about the Reformation are true, rather than that none of them are. The goal of producing a totally unmythologized account of the Reformation may be an unachievable, or even an undesirable, one. Nonetheless, this little book - drawing on the best, not always impartial, modern scholarship - will attempt to explain what sort of phenomenon the Reformation was, to assess its impact across religious, political, social, and cultural areas of life, and the character of its legacy to the modern world."
What I most appreciated was the focus on the areas of agreement theologically. Without glossing over areas of disagreement, the areas of disagreement were often exemplified by a "mentality widespread in the Reformation era, and still with us in various secular and religious guises: a desire to shore up the identity of the majority group by stereotyping and dehumanizing an excluded minority."
The book starts with a brief history of the Reformation. Marshall takes a broad view of what the Reformation consisted of, so it looks at Luther to the mid 1700 when the main religious wars of Europe were concluding. In many ways, a brief overview history like this can be better than the detailed history that can occasionally lose the forest for the trees.
The rest of the book spends times looking at how the Reformation affected the understanding of Salvation, the politics of Europe, the formation of society and culture, the way that Christianity look at others outside of Christianity and the legacy of the Reformation.
For me, the two most interesting parts were the view of salvation and culture. Marshall starts with discussion of salvation with this quote:
"The Christian metanarrative hinges on two fixed points of reference. Humanity lost the friendship of God through an act of primordial rebellion: the `Fall' of Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world, an `original sin' that marked and stained the natures of their descendants henceforth. But God himself took the initiative in restoring that friendship, assuming a human identity in Christ, who, in an ultimate act of love and sacrifice, suffered death on the cross and `atoned' for Adam's sin. The door to Salvation, shut in the Garden of Eden, was potentially open once more. This much was agreed by all mainstream thinkers of the Reformation era. Contention raged over how individual Christians might actually proceed through that door, the role of the Church in preparing them to do so, and whether the door was open for all or just for a few."
It may not be clear in that quote, but Marshall includes the Catholic theologians of the era as agreeing and has a good section on the Council of Trent and why in most areas Catholics and Protestants agreed about much of their theology.
It is interesting to me that culture was one of the areas that was more likely to have real disagreements. Principally this is because of different understandings of the role of art. I knew that Luther wrote a lot of hymns and encouraged congregational singing. But I did not know that was an innovation. Prior to Luther, there was choral singing, but it was not in the church. Luther moved choral singing into the church as part of worship. But many other of the arts did not have a similar advantage. Visual arts were mostly banned from Protestant churches because of a difference of opinion about the first commandment. (Protestants tend to view "you shall make no graven images" as the second commandment. While Catholics tend to view it as a modifier on the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me".) So early Protestants (and some today) view any artistic representation of not only God, but any visual art as suspect because it is creating an image. This is not that much unlike the difference between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic church 800 years earlier, with the Roman Catholics on the opposite side.
On the whole, this was a very good introduction to the Reformation and I think did a good job of minimizing some of the mythology of the protestant world that is still perpetuated and still is detrimental toward proper understanding of Catholics as part of the universal body of Christ.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
superb concise history in a user friendly format
Grappling with the meaning of Mendelssohn's "Reformation" Symphony, and the composer's use of the well known Lutheran hymn "Ein Feste Burg," in his powerful final movement, I came... Read more
Published 2 months ago by John E. Drury
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Introduction to a Turbulent Era
Peter Marshall did an excellent job of making the Reformation (actually, Reformations) understandable. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Karen S. Garvin
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Short Introduction: The Reformation
So far, the narrative is extremely well written. Easy to follow, easy to understand. Also, the author shows an appropriate sense of humor. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Shirley Hercules
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