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The Reformation: A History (Modern Library Chronicles)

Product Description: “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.

Subjects: History, Religion - Church History, History: World, Christianity - History - Protestant, History / General, General, Reformation,

Worthwhile but too short and informal
If you know nothing of the Reformation or the basis of the religious conflict involved this book is a fine place to start. But it is a very small book about a very big subject so one should not expect too much of it as some reviewers appear to have done. The author's humility in the preface defines the scope of the book, and while that scope is rather narrow, it is well focused.

Professor Collinson is a Fellow in the Department of History at Trinity College, Cambridge. He has taught history and the Reformation for nearly fifty years so I don't really know why this particular work is so brief and so unrefined. It could have been Professor Collinson's magnum opus. Instead it is a highly distilled and simplified work for a popular audience. Perhaps the subject was just too daunting or perhaps the author was just too humble.

The book starts with a brief historiography of the Reformation that is refreshing if for no other reason than its rejection of deconstructionism. This sets the stage for the rest of the book which turns out to be remarkably conservative, at places downright Whig, in its view point. This is astounding considering the strongly left leaning politics of Professor Collinson and most of the rest of his generation of English academics. The book is almost completely devoid of Marxist nonsense. How did that happen?

Next the book attempts to preface the Reformation with a description of the failings of the Catholic Church in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The author is almost apologetic for this but I found it the best part of the book and wanted more detail. Then follows an all too brief description of Erasmus and the influence of the printing press where Professor Collinson justly gives credit for the crystallization of the English language to Tyndale instead of Shakespeare. The book hits its stride in its account of Luther and Calvin as one would hope. The explanation of the theological conflicts of the age shows a considerable understanding and depth of knowledge, too bad more of this was not shared. The description of the Counter Reformation meanders a bit, suggesting a bit of personal contempt on the author's part, but the book perks back up in its telling of the Reformation in England and Scotland.

The writing style is what you would expect of an English student of the fifties - informal, chatty, unrefined, and full of sometimes irritating modern metaphor. This is not the rigorous academic work of folks like Sirs Herbert Butterfield or David Keir. But it is a jolly good and quick read and you will come away with a better understanding of the religious evolution that was the Reformation.

Short but solid introduction
The reformation is a rather broad swipe at a broad spectrum of events and people at one of those great turns in history. It is not likely that any single volume could cover the topic in sufficient detail. Yet, such a book would escape the notice of all but the most technical of historians. Prof Collinson has given us an history that is accessible to the wider audience wishing an unbiased raw historical tale. Toward the first chapters there seemed to be a slant toward justifying the Protestant position but with the balance of the remainder, whatever slant might have been supposed seemed to disappear.

A well-written and organized summary of these great events still shaping the western world. An important work for the more casual historian or as an introduction for the serious historian just launching out to learn more. This may very well give you that desire to seek out even more detailed works on this important topic.

Collinson's Summing Up
Only a master can write a book like this -- a witty, learned summary, doing the impossible by compressing a vast subject into a slim volume. Though Collinson is scrupulously fair, the account, perhaps necessarily, given its subject matter, tilts slightly toward the Reformers as occupying the high ground -- but high by only inches. Collinson alternately communicates both a wry detachment from the protagonists and also an empathetic understanding for the passions of an age far more sincerely religious than ours. While presupposing a familiarity with the outlines of history of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, this book would satisfy both the beginner as a guide and the historically informed for its learned perspective.

You gotta love Modern Library Chronicles
Yet another success from the Modern Library Chronicles. While the Reformation and it's effects on the Western world is a subject which could (and has) filled volumes of books of history and theology, Prof. Collinson has done a commendable job presenting the history of the Reformation (most commonly associated with Luther), the English Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation in a short, easy to read book. If you want to do some additional reading, Collinson has printed an excellent list of books for further reading.

It is hard to go wrong with a book from the Modern Library Chronicles.

too little on too much
Like a couple of the others who've reviewed this book I believe this book to be a poor choice to get a handle on Reformation history. I think a more "timeline" type approach would have been better. Instead, this work bounces around and throws bits and pieces at you. Makes it difficult to "get your brain around" so to speak. Being an intentionally short work he could have taken a few major paths and fleshed out their effect on Europe rather than trying to hit the highlights of so much. A very difficult read for those without a decent amount of knowledge on the Reformation to begin with.

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