Renaissance and Reformation

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Organization, slightly unbalanced treatment
Review: Dr. Estep did an excellent job of summarizing the Renaissance and Reformation eras with particular attention being paid to important characters such as Michelangelo Buonoratti, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.

I had a couple minor problems with the book:

1. Estep was a proclaimed Anabaptist (which is ok), so this work gives far too much treatment to elevating the Anabaptists to the detriment of their enemies, particularly Zwingli. There is no critique of the Anabaptists that I found in the book

2. Because he discussed by subject rather than chronologically (which I understand is probably hard to do considering the vast amount of things occurring at the time), one has trouble placing events of the Renaissance, Contintental Reformation, and English Reformation together. Michelangelo, Luther, and the beginning of the English Reformation were all occurring at the same time, but one would not find this out from reading this book.

Overall, great book. I'd recommend additional reading on particular reformers to accent it.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Overview of the Topic
Review: This was the text we used for my Renaissance/Reformation class last spring The book is broken into two main sections, with one covering the Renaissance and the other covering the Reformation.

I did not know much about the Renaissance coming in, and frankly didn't know much coming out. This was not particularly Estep's fault, because he knows the material, but the fact that we didn't cover the material save two weeks or so.

The overview of the Brethren of the Common Life, Devotio Moderna, and the Medieval life leading up to the Reformation are a good overview. It could have been more detailed, but it wasn't bad.

He then does an overview of the life of Desidarius Erasmus. Erasmus, of course, was the "Prince of the Humanists". He was a tremendous thinker, and Estep does a good job covering his life and works.

Then he moves on to the life and works of Martin Luther. He spends two chapters on Luther, and does a good job highliting the road from the monastic life to the 95 theses, to the Leipzig Disputation, etc. He doesn't go as detailed into Luther as one from the Lutheran or Reformed tradition might like (Estep was a self-proclaimed Anabaptist).

He then goes on to Huldrych Zwingli (not the way he spells it). He spends one chapter covering Zwingli and his rise in the Swiss canton of Zurich. The next chapter covers the parting of the ways between the Anabaptists and Zwingli. He, of course was very sympathetic to the Anabaptist cause, and it shows as the next chapter is devoted to the Anabaptists and their main theologians (Balthasar Hubmaier, Menno Simmons and Pilgrim Marpeck).

The next chapter was devoted to John Calvin. I was a little disappointed that he didn't devote another chapter to Calvin, but it was okay. He did do a good job covering the life of Calvin, but was very inadequate on the works of Calvin. He didn't seem too biased against Calvin as many do, which was a welcome suprise, but I wish he would have spent more time.

The last chapters were devoted to the English Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, and Reformation in smaller parts of Europe. These chapters were pretty good. They could have been better, to be sure, but they were decent, nonetheless.

The main thing with this book that I was disappointed with was the fact that he didn't write it in a chronological fashion. This was fairly annoying, because you didn't get a grasp of everything that was going on. Also, this is a poor text for a graduate level and seminary level class. It is excellent for the college student, but not for the graduate.

The other problem I have with the book is that he doesn't cover any of the minor figures of the Lutheran or Calvinist camp (i.e. Johannes Oecalampadius, Zacharius Ursinus, Caspar Olevianus, Heinrich Bullinger, etc.). He does mention that Henrich Bullinger followed Zwingli in Zurich, but doesn't cover anything about him. He merely mentions him in passing.

This book had its positives and its negatives, but it was a pretty good introduction to the Renaissance and Reformation periods.