Descriere
'a vital resource'
TLS
'Compelling collection'
Literary Review
The Reformation was a seismic event in history whose consequences are still unfolding in Europe and across the world.
Martin Luther's protests against the marketing of indulgences in 1517 were part of a long-standing pattern of calls for reform in the Christian Church. But they rapidly took a radical and unexpected turn, engulfing first Germany, and then Europe, in furious arguments about how God's will was to be 'saved'.
However, these debates did not remain confined to a narrow sphere of theology. They came to reshape politics and international relations; social, cultural, and artistic developments; relations between the sexes; and the patterns and performances of everyday life. They were also the stimulus for Christianity's transformation into a truly global religion, as agents of the Roman Catholic Church sought to compensate for losses in Europe with new conversions in Asia and the Americas.
Covering both Protestant and Catholic reform movements, in Europe and across the wider world, this compact volume tells the story of the Reformation from its immediate, explosive beginnings, through to its profound longer-term consequences and legacy for the modern world. The story is not one of an inevitable triumph of liberty over oppression, enlightenment over ignorance. Rather, it tells how a multitude of rival groups and individuals, with or without the support of political power, strove after visions of 'reform'. And how, in spite of themselves, they laid the foundations for the plural and conflicted world we now inhabit.
Review from previous edition ...a scintillating state-of-the-art survey of the Reformation... a marvellous collection of essays. ― Henry A. Jefferies, Iris h Historical Studies
authored by leading reformation scholars.... The book is learned, although unencumbered by footnotes, being cognizant of the latest developments in reformation research, and sometimes challenging them...the resulting work is informative, readable, and authoritative. ― Benjamin B. Saunders, Reading Religion
provid[es] an easily accessible distillation of some of the best recent scholarship of the Reformation. A work of this kind is a vital resource for anyone concerned to understand what ideas, events and convictions compelled the sea changes in Christianity that took place in the sixteenth century, and, no less important, to understand the repercussions of these changes which are still felt today. ― Anne Dillon, Times Literary Supplement
This short volume does a magnificent job in providing a birds eye view of the Protestant Reformation ― Mark Greengrass, University of Sheffield, Huguenot Society Journal
This book does a fine job of unfolding the intricately decorated and richly textured fabric of this extraordinary era... a scintillating collection of essays that challenges conventional views of the Reformation. ― Lucy Wooding, The Tablet
Expert essays ― Theology, Diarmaird MacCulloch
An outstanding work of church history ― Church of England Newspaper
Splendid book ― Catholic Herald
Compelling collection...Brilliantly assembled by Peter Marshall ― Literary Review, Paul Lay
it bears comparison with the very best studies and compendia... a hearty 'bravo' is in order ― Herald, Jonathan Wright
Wonderful... It's a huge achievement by Marshall, and by OUP, that cleverly gets the ball rolling head of the 500th anniversary of Luther's posting of his Ninety-five Theses ― Oxford Today
a text from some of the leading experts in the field, who present a fine panorama of current thinking on this formative era for the modern West. ― Diarmaid MacCulloch, University of Oxford, and author of A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
An outstanding work of church history. ― Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper
