Review: "The Reformation"

 

The Reformation:  A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, is a history of the Reformation. (Don’t be shocked.)

It is an extensive history – clocking in at over 700 pages of small print text. There are also three sections of pictures and art that helps to visually fill out the history.

In any history, it would seem that the author would have to pick and choose which things to emphasize – not to ignore anything relevant, but to keep the work from becoming unwieldy.  In MacCullouch’s book, the Puritan and Reformed traditions have less said about them than others.  Or, perhaps, it is just a matter of there being more said about the Anglicans and Episcopalians. This does not take away from his book.

My own studies have primarily been in the theology of the Reformation. What I learned the most about – which was almost totally lacking in my education about the Reformation – is how incredibly intertwined the theology, politics, and economics were.  (Perhaps like today?)  The theology of the Reformation which I knew fairly well did not exist apart from the economics and politics of the period but had a symbiotic relationship.  For this reason, it is a book I will keep and refer back to as I continue to learn theology – so I can place it in the whole of its historical context.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com].