But that’s what Cardinal Walter Kasper wants to make him.* There were a lot of moral Reformers before, during, and after the Reformation. Luther wasn’t one of them. The moral Reformers wanted to clean up the behavior of the Roman communion and . . . Continue reading →
That’s the old canard that the Emergent Village folks appear to be trotting out (HT: Daily Scroll). Honestly, I wonder where this lot went to school. I noted the strange historical story that EV folk tell themselves in my essay in Brian . . . Continue reading →
Robert G. Torbet, A History of the Baptists (Philadelphia: The Judson Press, 1950), 35 contains this striking subordinate clause, “…when Zwingli became reluctant to continue his Anabaptist teaching…” I’ve read this claim before and I’ve heard it repeated. I’ve never seen any . . . Continue reading →
Thanks to Andrew Myers for pointing us to these resources for those of us interested in one of Calvin’s colleagues in Geneva and in one of the more interesting, if overlooked, figures in the Reformation.
The election of Pope Paul III in 1534 signaled the beginning of the counter-Reformation; that is Rome’s response to Luther, Calvin and their followers. One way Paul III hoped to counter the teachings of the reformation was to complete the construction of . . . Continue reading →
For a time, the movement spread widely into parts of Germany and Austria, as well as Northern Italy. Persecution by the church, however, was severe and eventually reduced the movement to a remnant in the valleys of Northern Italy. Efforts to eradicate them through the centuries failed, and only in 1870 did the Waldensians receive full civil rights in Italy. [click image for more] Continue reading →
In 2013 the Heidelberg Catechism will be 450 years old. To mark this event Karla Apperloo-Boersma and Herman Selderhuis have edited a new volume (hardcover, 440 pages) on the catechism. According to Amazon it’s $56.00 (HT: Michael A. G. Haykin). Thus begins the . . . Continue reading →
Brad Gregory is a well-respected Reformation historian. He has taught at Stanford and now teaches at Notre Dame. His study of martyrdom in the Reformation period is highly regarded. He has produced a new work which is receiving a good deal of . . . Continue reading →
Before the modern Word-Faith (“name it and claim it” or “health and wealth”) preachers there was a huckster named Johann Tetzel (1465–1519). He is famous for his marketing of the medieval practice of selling indulgences with the jingle, “When the coin in . . . Continue reading →
With regard to Luther’s judgment on images, we are not in the dark. In his report to his confidant Nikolaus Hausmann on the situation he found in Wittenberg, he was unambiguous: “Damno imagines.” The elimination of images, however, should be brought about . . . Continue reading →
We maintain to start with that, when God raised up Luther and others, who held forth a torch to light us into the way of salvation on on whose ministry our churches are founded and built, those heads of doctrine in which . . . Continue reading →
It cannot be too strongly emphasized at the outset that Calvin did not think of himself as “Reformed” in the sense of inner-Protestant polemics. Calvin was not a Calvinist but an Evangelical, and what he thought about Luther can only be understood . . . Continue reading →
Peter Berger has been an influential and important sociologist of religion for more than 50 years. He is presently Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University. To review a . . . Continue reading →
On the sixteenth day of January, 1546, the Regent and cardinal arrived after night-fall at Elphingston Tower, in the neighbourhood of Ormiston, with five hundred men, and despatched the Earl of Bothwell to apprehend Wishart, holding themselves in readiness, if need were, . . . Continue reading →
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This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In this episode we look at the background to the Reformation in the medieval church, how the medieval church set the stage for the Reformation . . . Continue reading →
This is season 8 of Office Hours and we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. This is part 2 of a three-part introduction to the Reformation. In part 1 we looked briefly at the background to the Reformation in the . . . Continue reading →
Josiah writes to the HB: Often when we think of the reformation we think back to 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis on the church door in Wittenberg Germany but we describe it in such a way that it’s almost . . . Continue reading →
It is widely held and assumed that the Reformation was a modern event. Reformation studies, where they still happen in state-funded universities, are nearly always categorized as “early modern.” Historians of the 16th and 17th centuries regularly describe themselves as scholars of . . . Continue reading →