Cromey Online

The writings of author, therapist, and priest Robert Warren Cromey.

Thursday, March 05, 2020

THE REFORMATION-a review

The Reformation
-Diarmaid MacCulloch
(See him on Wikipedia)
Penguin Books 2005

This powerful book “should  become the definitive history of the Reformation.” We get a vivid picture of the major players of the Protestant reformation and the Counter-Reformation of the Roman Church. There is no bashing of Rome or the Protestants. They both had great faults and great wisdom.

Over sixty years ago in seminary we studied Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli and Calvin and Henry VIII. We read about the popes and the problems of the Roman Church. Reading this book brings memories, new insights and wonderful fresh biographies of the all the major figures. MacCulloch depicts the brave virtues and ghastly faults of the reformation figures.

Zwingli was a pacifist and died a warrior in a ferocious war. Luther was a great theologian but urged the Peasants Revolt ended by slaughter. Various popes sought to preserve Roman faith by massacres of perceived heretics.

There is also a discussion of the Renaissance, the reformation, humanism and science. The debates about the real presence, purgatory, indulgences, sacraments are presented fairly and often with humour.

The importance of the printing press and how information spread for the first time history. The discussions of the entanglement of religion and politics, the apocalypse, the Kingdom of God and a just society are so clear and simplified. Not simple but written in language we can understand.

There are wonderful sections on love and sex, sodomy, celibacy, manners and  the family. There is the movement toward choices in religion. We have those choices today but it was a long time coming.

Those with an interest in history, religion and society will enjoy and learn from The Reformation. It isa book to be read carefully by people willing to learn lots more about what we think we know about Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, the Eastern Orthodox and Jewish history during these years. I realised how little I knew or even understood about those years and their affect on our lives today

I read it on my iPad because of my poor eye sight. The real book is solid and an endless resource, encyclopaedia and reference. I bought the book just to keep around and dip into.


RWC

2 Comments:

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8:12 PM  
Blogger AHarris said...

While riding the Bay Trail today I remembered your request for a comment on the book about the Reformation you reviewed. Sorry to have waited so long.

In my class on the Reformation I learned that Zwingli was caught by his enemies, drawn, quartered, his body burned, and the ashes thrown in the river. He was, like, really, really dead.

Having been raised without any religious teachings (a great advantage when I finally was able to study comparative religions at Dominican College – no presuppositions), and have always urged my students to study that part of world history to help them understand our world today. (Salesian’s high school religion classes give it short shrift) I suspect few will. With all the emphasis on STEM the Humanities are withering. One of my life’s ironies is that I learned about the Reformation in a remarkably open minded, progressive Catholic college from a Presbyterian minister, and landed in the Salesian world guided at the time by a remarkably open minded, progressive priest, Fr John Itzaina.

Having exhausted all my old magazines I had kept to read, and all but a few books, this sounds like a great choice. Of course all my favorite bookstores are closed, so I’ll have to resort to B&N. At least they are a book store. Your review is excellent – I’m always disappointed to see so few comments on your posts.

I suggest for you a book called A Life of Jesus, by Shusako Endo, a Japanese author who is Christian. It’s a very interesting take on Jesus’ life, his disappointment in his followers, the social and political zeitgeist of his time, and his foundational belief in a God who loves rather than punishes. It’s now available in a pdf.

Be well, Robert and Ann, stay well. There is a shit storm coming in November, so let us all keep the faith in a just universe.

2:24 PM  

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