The Reformation : A History (Modern Library Chronicles)

Rating:
Summary: History for the common reader
Review: A clearly written, wonderfully readable history for the non-specialist. The author clearly knows not only his material but is a valuable resource for all the other major writing on the subject and generously points the reader in other directions when relevant. Adding to the pleaure of reading this concise summary of vast amounts of historical information is a witty style that entertains as it instructs. The only complaints I have refer to frequent Latin phrases that are infrequently decoded and an occasional presumption of theological concepts that are foreign to the non-Christian (i.e. myself). Also sometimes the brevity leave gaping questions (e.g. when Calvin was made unwanted in Geneva, why was he called back?). Nonetheless, this is a fascinating, engaging work.

Rating:
Summary: One of Modern Library Chronicles Best
Review: As a fan of the Modern Library Chronicles series, it was a thrill to read The Reformation. It is a great topic for this small format and the author, Patrick Collinson, handles the job with great intelligence and, surprisingly, a little bit of sly wit. The book ranges from before Luther and carries the story into the seventeenth century and beyond, but the main focus of the work is kept squarely on the revolutionary sixteenth century. The author keeps a balance in his discussion of the topic of the Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation and brings in the work of many previous scholars. The short format, of course, does not allow for great depth in the theological discourse but the author is effective in bringing out the important points in an efficient bite-size manner. A fine piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: A time of great change
Review: As author Patrick Collinson writes, this is a book about Western Europe - a period in Western Europe's development that, when drawn on a map, rather interestingly parallels the shape and development of the European Union community. Collinson gives attention at the start to the area of Christendom beyond the Western Church, but makes the point that the evolutionary/revolutionary pattern in the greater Orthodox world is far different from the West, and that it never experienced the kind of events that the Reformation and Counter-Reformation caused in the West.

The Reformation was not a one-time event, but an ongoing process over many centuries. The timeline Collinson provides at the start begins at 1378, the start of the Great Schism, the era of popes and antipopes, which provided some fertile ground for later Reformation in fact if not in theology and ecclesiology. This is of course 150 years prior to Martin Luther's grand pronouncements, followed quickly by John Calvin and others. Collinson's time frame continues up to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in Britain, which finally established the Protestant rule in Britain.

Collinson's explorations show interesting sides to this tumultuous period of history. Luther's conversion story, often retold by Luther himself, changes periodically into not-always-consistent versions. This is part of the tension Collinson describes, the tension between Reformation as a process and Reformation as an historical event. Collinson also develops the idea of Reformation as something not necessarily tremendously radical - Martin Luther, according to many historians quoted by Collinson, can be seen as a medieval rather than a modern man - he `...offered new answers to old questions. He asked no new ones.'

Thus, Collinson speaks of the late medieval church and its Reformation - this was something internal rather than external to the church, however much later history may want to see it in terms of external sources and forces. Collinson explores issues of language and literacy (remembering the kind of revolution that inventions such as the Gutenberg Press made available), and looks at alternate patterns the Reformation followed under different leaders and in different locations. Collinson highlights the English Reformation as a particularly special case - `exceptional in the extent to which it was contested, both at the time and ever since.' Part of the difficulties in the Anglican communion today can be directly traced to the issues and problems of authority and ecclesiology that were present during this early period. Some of the more interesting chapters include his discussion of Politics, the development of early sensibilities that later would lead to the idea of the nation-state, and Art, which includes the likes of George Herbert, Albrecht Durer, Hans Holbein, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.

Collinson explores people, places, events, trends - he does not concentrate on one particular historical investigation, but develops various strands overall. Collinson's final chapters traces different developments after the Reformation/Counter-Reformation period, showing how strands reached into Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution and other ages, but stops short of making definitive pronouncements about the cause and effect.

Collinson's text is lively, accessible, and interesting. It carries the movement of history well with a good amount of detail without being excessive in labouring minor points. He has a useful index and section on further readings for each chapter/subject.

A great find!


Rating:
Summary: Off the Mark...A Mixed Bag of Essays...
Review: Patrick Collison's Reformation: A History, is off the mark, for it fails to produce the overall effect that the title suggests. It is not a history, in the true sense, for his subject matter is buried too far in obscure theory and it lacks precise modes of chronological sequencing (time-ordering of people, places, things, causes and effects) . This work is more like a mixed bag of essays, which insufficiently treats subjects tied to the Reformation. Also, Collison writes in distasteful, unbalanced, and unpolished prose, and so does not even add a rhetorical coloring to his already stale and humdrum work on the Reformation. Of the hundreds of works to turn to for guidance to knowledge of the Reformation, Collison's is not even suggested among those. Instead, consult Diarmaid MacCulloch, Will Durant, or Phillip Schaff, for authoritative works on the Reformation.

Rating:
Summary: An insightful summary of the Reformation
Review: There is no shortage of old and new material about the Reformation. It sometimes feels like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose - cliché perhaps, but true nevertheless. To take that sip of water you need a way to lessen the flow, a valve. Collinson's book, The Reformation, serves this purpose admirably. But more than that it puts the valve in your hands, to open or close as you see fit. Any general coverage of a topic will necessarily leave out some, perhaps many, details. In this regard Collinson makes excellent choices in what to include. But his genius lies in the ability to reveal the discovery process by explicitly asking the questions historians seek to answer about the past. For example, historians have recently questioned whether or not the Reformation was a single event, albeit over a period of about a century, many events, or even if it has been a continuous process right up to the present.

The book briefly covers topics ranging from politics, people, art, and language to Luther, Calvin, and Erasmus. Collinson's writing style is informal but not sloppy. Each topic seemed to fit so well together that the book flowed smoothly from beginning to end. And here is the valve: within many chapters, and at the end in suggested readings, Collinson cites the most relevant sources for the differing viewpoints of historians such as F. Fernandez-Armesto and Euan Cameron. To be sure you can find a bibliography in any book on the Reformation. But if you don't plan on reading every single one it can be difficult to decide which ones are representative of the differing opinions. Collinson often helps by telling the reader, in general terms, which side of the debate a historian is on (though it is never really that simple).

The Reformation is an excellent book in many regards. It can serve as a starting place for a general, or in-depth, survey of the Reformation. But it can also stand-alone as an excellent summary of the major characters, events, and themes of the Reformation.