Customer Reviews

Unquenchable Flame

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Here's a book I highly recommend. I picked it up and found it pretty hard to put down - ploughed through it over the course of a weekend. It was a real pleasure to read - I loved it.

The author Mike Reeves is the Theological Advisor for UCCF. Previously he was an associate minister at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. I have sat under some of his teaching in the past at All Souls Church - which I really enjoyed - so I was really looking forward to getting my hands on this book - his first.

His writing style is best described as lively - his sharp humour is put to good use -the content is excellent and the book has nice little illustrations along the way.

The topics of the chapters are as follows:
1. The background to the Reformation
2. Martin Luther
3. Zwingli and the Radical Reformers
4. John Calvin
5. The Reformation in Britain
6. The Puritans
7. Is the Reformation over?

This is not an in depth history it is more of an introduction. But if you are looking for a decent introduction to the reformation - or even a spritely refresher you couldn't get much better than this.

This is also a helpful piece at the end to encourage us to consider whether the reformation is over....I think you can probably guess what the answer will be.

Anyway - if you can get your hands on a copy read it.

Here are a few little snippets for you to get a feel for the book:

Speaking of Martin Luther

Yet to the end he had a personality that could set the Rhine on fire. Some loved it, others wished he could be at least a little less rude and raw. Certainly he was no stained-glass ideal. Perhaps, though, such a red-blooded and blunt man was just what was needed for the momentous and seemingly impossible task of challenging all Christendom and turning it around. He was shock therapy for the world. And somehow, his personality seems fit for the gospel he uncovered: he inspires no moral self improvement in would be disciples; instead, his evident humanity testifies to a sinner's absolute need for God's grace. P59

Who were the Puritans?

"Puritan": the word has always been more a weapon than a description. For the vast majority it is verbal mud that, once hurled, makes the victim look a laughable, po-faced, lemon sucking prig. For the small minority it is brandished as a description of a united golden team with the most impeccable theological and spiritual credentials. P 144

Who, then, were the Puritans? Perhaps John Milton put it best, when he spoke of "the reforming of the Reformation", for that was the united goal of all Puritans. It was not that they thought they were pure, it was that they wanted to purify what in the church and themselves had not yet been purified. They wanted to reform, and while they had some different ideas as to what that should look like, they wanted to apply the Reformation to everything it had not yet touched. They thought the Reformation was a good thing, but that it was not yet complete. P145

Origin of the word "Hocus Pocus"
The service of the Mass was said in Latin. The people of course, understood not a word. The trouble was, neither did many of the clergy, who found learning the service by rote quicker than learning a whole new language. Thus when parishioners heard "Hocus pocus" instead of Hoc est corpus meum, who knows whose mistake it was? Even priest were known to fluff their lines. And with little understanding of what was being said, it was hard for the average parishioner to distinguish Roman Catholic orthodoxy from magic and superstition. P 13

There is also a website that goes with the book which is worth a look