Reformation Books

The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller

Carlo Ginzburg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Nonsense Book with No Evidence and Weak Logic 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Cheese and the Worms has got to be the most ridiculously over-rated academic work of history of the past 3 decades. The author's central argument of the existence of an essentially unchanged Indo-European folk culture that spans both millenia and continents is both completely lacking in evidence and, from a theoretical view, patently ridiculous.

You can't simply sit down and find vague similarities between what a 16th century miller says and what some guy 2000 years earlier said in India and then, without any evidence or even a compelling argument of how the expressed ideas would have been transmitted, claim that this is proof positive that a substrata of Indo-European popular culture formed the predominant mentalite of most of the population of Europe throughout the latter ancient, medieval, and early modern periods. That's nonsense.

Besides the obvious paucity of evidence, the author has a seriously deficient understanding of how popular culture works. Popular culture, whether modern or ancient, is simply NOT static over millenia of time and over thousands of miles of geography. Did premodern popular culture evolve more slowly than culture today? Yes, it probably did, and it also long retained certain features (particularly features tied to technology constraints and the natural world) -- but it did change. In fact, careful historical analysis of popular culture during the early modern period, based on extensive use of archival material, has shown that pre-modern popular culture actually seems to evolve quite a bit more quickly than was previously thought. The notion of an unchanging rural European culture, developed by late 19th century intellectuals, simply doesn't hold up when confronted with the actual evidence. Economic patterns change, elements of elite culture sift down and are adopted/incorporated by the populace, different foods are introduced, marriage and family patterns shift, devotional practices evolve, and so on -- and here I am talking only of diachronic issues, let alone geographic diversity.

One cannot simply do as Ginzburg has done and find some aspect of early modern European popular culture and then, with no evidence whatsoever to support one's supposition, assume that this feature extends indefinately into the medieval past. When thinking about history, it is always of great importance never to assume that trends move in a straight progression -- they don't, they go up and down and this way and that. Heresy is a great example. There is always a certain amount of popular heresy present in medieval Europe, but the nature of the beliefs, the organization of the heretics, their geographic foci, etc. all changes over time.

The Cheese and the Worms was a success because it fit the Baby Boom generation of academics anti-hierarchical ideology, not because it was good scholarship. There was an element of that generation that wanted to believe that the 'true' popular culture of Europe had nothing to do with the church or literature or anything else. Instead, they wanted to believe that the 'true' culture consisted of some eternal Indo-European folkloric belief system and that peasants merely gave superficial lip service to the 'impositions' of the elites (Christian faith in particular). The Cheese and the Worms told them what they already wanted to believe, so they believed it.

If you want a book on medieval popular culture that A) was written by someone with both intelligence and common sense and B) actually has genuine evidence for what the author claims (imagine that!), read Medieval Popular Culture, by Aron Gurevich. Giovanni and Lusanna by Gene Brucker is also a good, light little book that provides a window into the culture of Renaissance townsfolk in Italy.

Don't waste your time with Ginzburg. He's not an historian -- he's an idealogue.

Editorial Review:

A survey of popular culture in 16th century Italy.

William Tyndale: A Biography (Yale Nota Bene)

David Daniell

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Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Several popular histories of the King James Bible are available to interested readers, including works that concentrate on the book's political influence Wide as the Waters) and its theological import (In the Beginning). Perhaps the most readable survey of the language of the King James Version, however, comes in the form of a biography of its primary translator. William Tyndale: A Biography by David Daniell (a University of London scholar and chairman of the William Tyndale Society) reveals all that is known of Tyndale's life, but its primary interest is in Tyndale's rhetorical style. Daniell asserts, convincingly, that Tyndale "made a language for England," in the same way that Martin Luther is acknowledged having united Germany's dialects in his German translation of the New Testament. The biography recites many widely known facts (Tyndale wrote nine-tenths of the King James Version's New Testament (the gospel Christmas stories--"there were shepherds abiding in the fields"--are Tyndale's), and half of its Old Testament ("Let there be light" is another of Tyndale's phrases). More importantly, Daniell's biography describes the development of Tyndale's skills as a linguist (he commanded eight languages, including Hebrew, at a time when Hebrew was virtually unknown in England) and parses Tyndale's adaptation of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin syntax into English. In the first sentence of his introduction to this book, Daniell states that "William Tyndale gave us our English Bible." The verb in that sentence is the key to this biography: it is a work of gratitude. --Michael Joseph Gross

The Reformation: A History (Modern Library Chronicles)

Patrick Collinson

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“No revolution however drastic has ever involved a total repudiation of what came before it.”

The religious reformations of the sixteenth century were the crucible of modern Western civilization, profoundly reshaping the identity of Europe’s emerging nation-states. In The Reformation, one of the preeminent historians of the period, Patrick Collinson, offers a concise yet thorough overview of the drastic ecumenical revolution of the late medieval and Renaissance eras. In looking at the sum effect of such disparate elements as the humanist philosophy of Desiderius Erasmus and the impact on civilization of movable-type printing and “vulgate” scriptures, or in defining the differences between the evangelical (Lutheran) and reformed (Calvinist) churches, Collinson makes clear how the battles for mens’ lives were often hatched in the battles for mens’ souls.

Collinson also examines the interplay of spiritual and temporal matters in the spread of religious reform to all corners of Europe, and at how the Catholic Counter-Reformation used both coercion and institutional reform to retain its ecclesiastical control of Christendom. Powerful and remarkably well written, The Reformation is possibly the finest available introduction to this hugely important chapter in religious and political history.


From the Hardcover edition.

Luther's Liturgical Music: Principles and Implications (Luthern Quarterly Books)

Robin A. Leaver

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Essential Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is an absolutely excellent study of Luther's philosophy and theology of music and its use to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. It is extremely well researched, engagingly presented, and filled with wonderful insights. The title might be a bit misleading since this is not merely a study of Luther's use of liturgical music, but rather a comprehensive overview of the role of music in Martin Luther's theology and pastoral practice. The book is packed with information. This book will rightly take its place as one of the most definitive treatments of this subject, more or less neglected in much of Luther studies in English. Put this book together with the Lutheran Confessions and you have a very well rounded vision for church life and confession in the Lutheran Reformation tradition. Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions -- A Reader's Edition of the Book of Concord

Thomas Cranmer: A Life

Diarmaid MacCulloch

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Misleading information on Cranmer's theology--rubbish. 1 out of 5 stars.
32 of 53 people found this review helpful.

MacCulloch seeks to present Archbishop Cranmer as a radical protestant with little scholarly interest or knowledge of the early church, and also that the "via media" of Anglicanism that resulted from the English Reformation was contrary to Cranmer's radical protestant beliefs and is a "myth." While MacCulloch may have written a biography he failed to examine the source of Cranmer's beliefs and theology. MacCulloch claims that Cranmer's eucharistic theology stems from the Swiss Reformed tradition: one had only to read Basil Hall's essay in "Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar" edited by Ayris and Selwyn to see that this is demonstrably false. Cranmer was heavily influenced by Lutheranism as well as by the "exposition of the most holy and learned fathers and martyrs" of "the holy catholic church of Christ from the beginning" (Cranmer's words) and as such his theology clearly stands in the same line as that of Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrewes. This sort of "scholarship" with an obvious ax to grind is perhaps the worst sort. If you want to know Cranmer's views on the Sacraments (as most Anglicans or scholars of the Reformation do) please read him in his own words in "A Defense of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ" (if you can find a copy in the library) or in "Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar."

Editorial Review:

Don't go confusing your Thomas Cranmer with your Thomas More; now there is a Tudor faux-pas if ever there was one. Cranmer made the divorce happen, More lost his head over it. Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer, More was the author of Utopia. And it was More who was canonized a saint, while Cranmer was executed by "Bloody" Mary Tudor for his fiendish plotting on behalf of Lady Jane Grey as well as for his embracing an evangelical brand of Protestantism the Catholic queen found wholly disagreeable. In this highly readable biography, we get the first new treatment of Cranmer in three decades, bolstered by recent scholarship and new sources. Think this stuff is remote? Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury, crafted two editions of the English Book of Common Prayer. The success of this book had an enormous impact on the English language, loading terms with meaning and influencing the rhetoric of power for the next two centuries.

The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision

Henry Kamen

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Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mention the Spanish Inquisition and immediately thoughts of brutal torture and callous witch-hunts spring to mind. Popular belief holds up this infamous institution as a symbol of religious and political intolerance--against the Protestants, Jews, Catholic heretics, and political orders such as the Knights Templar. Yet when Henry Kamen first wrote The Spanish Inquisition in 1965, he argued that the Inquisition was not as powerful or cruel as commonly conceived.

This updated version of Kamen's hypothesis continues and reaffirms his original arguments. In this edition, Kamen provides additional evidence derived mostly from monographic studies conducted by other scholars that separates myth from reality; Kamen suggests that the Inquisition did not enjoy widespread popularity, in Spain or the rest of Europe, and that it was used as a device to scare off enemies. He also concludes that the failure of the Spanish populace to accept Lutheran principles had more to do with popular indifference toward Protestantism than interference from the Inquisition. Though Kamen's book is occasionally lacking in social analysis, this revisionist overview of the Inquisition's impact on Europe is rich in detail and will appeal to anyone who has an interest in this period.

Battle for Christendom

Frank Welsh

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Editorial Review:

At the dawn of the fifteenth century, Islam invaded Europe from the East and it seemed that Christendom itself was under threat. In an attempt to save the Christian world, the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund called a conference at Constance, beside the Rhine. The council attracted the greatest minds in the western world, as well as innumerable princes, lawyers, and prostitutes.

In The Battle for Christendom, eminent historian Frank Welsh delves into this important incident and shows that it is in fact one of the central moments in European history. Schism had ravaged the Catholic Church and three Popes were claiming the seat of St. Peter's. The event would be a critical turning point in European history--the last event of the medieval world, heralding the dawn of the renaissance and the rise of humanism. Yet it would also hold a darker truth and with the burning of the Czech divine, Jan Hus, saw first moments of the Reformation. The story rises to a conclusion on the battlements of Constantinople in 1453 where, despite all of Sigismund's attempts to repel the Ottomans, Islam rose up once more.

In Welsh's lively retelling, The Battle for Christendom is an exciting and readable story that holds lessons for our own times of international turmoil.

Hutterite Beginnings: Communitarian Experiments during the Reformation (Center Books in Anabaptist Studies)

Werner O. Packull

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Editorial Review:

"The publication of this volume is cause for celebration! The years of painstaking research in untold towns, cities, and libraries in Europe, as well as in North America, the empathy the author brought to the subject... the skill evident in translating, especially technical terms, and the firm grasp of both minute details and their implications, as well as the overall story, have raised the level of historical scholarship to a new high." -- Cornelius J. Dyck, Church History

The oldest and largest communal society in North America, the Hutterites -- Anabaptists of German origin, like the Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren -- have long been the subject of scholarly study and popular curiosity. Werner Packull tells the comprehensive story of the Hutterite beginnings in their original homelands -- particularly in Tyrol and Moravia -- and discovers important relationships among early Anabaptist sects.

"Extensive quotations from the Hutterite Chronicle, the prison letters, and other witness accounts give immediacy to Packull's narrative and provide English readers with a window on primary sources that remain largely untranslated... With its wealth of evocative source material, it is a highly readable account that will appeal not only to specialists but also to undergraduates and general readers." -- Erika Rummel, American Historical Review

"Packull is to be lauded for doing the research so thoroughly and presenting the results so lucidly. His is a meticulous and masterful piece of scholarship in a neglected area of ecclesiastical history." -- Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

"An indispensable tool and resources for all who describe and interpret these traditions from religious and social perspectives." -- Walter Klaassen, Conrad Grebel Review

"This remarkable history of early Swiss and Upper German Anabaptism sets a new norm for scholarship, combining as it does for the first time in such depth the methodologies of social history and the history of ideas. Werner O. Packull seems to have left no stone unturned." -- Leonard Gross, Mennonite Quarterly Review

The Catholicity of the Reformation

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

That All May Be One 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

What form of Protestantism is to take the center stage in America? This book by a group of, all but one, Luthernas represents two distinct trends in American Protestantism. One group sees the Reformation as an end in itself, complete and finished. Free forms of worship, no institutionization of the Spirit, etc. This group sees there to be no need whatsoever to be reunited to Rome. That would be a step backward.

The other group understands the movement differently. These beleivers understand themselves to be Catholics in exile, to varying degrees, who think that the Reformation may be doing more harm thatn good, even if it was, in Pelikan's words, "a tragic necessity".

The authors are very fluent in teh terms of the questions at hand and represtent the main thinkers on the subject.

Please consider the following statement by a late 19th century Lutheran: "One is not a Lutheran who every day does not ask himself why he is not a Roman Catholic."

Editorial Review:

These essays put forth the thesis that the Reformers did not set out to create what later came to be known as Protestant Christianity. Theirs was a quest for reformation and renewal in continuity with the "one holy catholic and apostolic church.

Augsburg Confession The

Leif Grane

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A concise commentary, highly useful as an accompaniment to the reading of the Augsburg Confession itself. All who are interested in the doctrinal traditions of the Lutheran Church can find here the means to increase their theological and historical understanding of the text. The theological perspective of the Augsburg Confession is made clear by comparisons with the writings of Luther and other Reformers, as well as with other main streams of the Christian tradition. Included for each article of the confession are the English translation of the text, notes on the text, and theological and historical commentary on the meaning of the article. Also included are an extensive introduction to the writing of the confession, footnotes, a selected bibliography, and an index. In its Danish, Swedish, and German editions this commentary has become a indispensable introduction to this classic confession of the Lutheran Reformation. Here is a source of fresh insight into the meaning of the Augsburg Confession -- and guidance into the meaning of the gospel for today.