The Reformation A History [Paperback]

The National Book Critics Circle Award–winning history of the Reformation—from theNew York Timesbestselling author ofChristianity 

At a time when men and women were prepared to kill—and be killed—for their faith, the Protestant Reformation tore the Western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch's award-winning history brilliantly re-creates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars, and politicians—from the zealous Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Thesesto the polemical John Calvin to the radical Igantius Loyola, from the tortured Thomas Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.

 

Drawing together the many strands of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives—overturning ideas of love, sex, death, and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.

Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations and Maps
Introduction

PART I: A COMMON CULTURE

1. The Old Church, 1490-1517
Seeing Salvation in Church. The First Pillar: The Mass and Purgatory. Layfolk at Prayer. The Second Pillar: Papal Primacy. A Pillar Cracks: Politics and the Papacy. Church Versus Commonwealth?

2. Hopes and Fears, 1490-1517
Shifting Boundaries. The Iberian Exception. The Iberian Achievement: The Western Church Exported. New Possibilities: Paper and Printing. Humanism: A New World from Books. Putting Renewal into Practice. Reform or the Last Days? Erasmus: Hopes, Fulfilled, Fears Stilled?

3. New Heaven: New Earth, 1517-24
The Shadow of Augustine. Luther: A Good Monk, 1483-1517. An Accidental Revolution, 1517-21. Whose Revolution? 1521-22. Evangelical Challenges: Zwingli and Radicalism, 1521-22. Zürich and Wittenberg, 1522-24. ThelóW