Renaissance and Reformation Book

This is a useful and at times very enjoyable read as a survey of late medieval and early modern European church history. I do not intend to use this volume in the future, except as a reference point for establishing a baseline evangelical understanding of the Reformation. Its principal defect was its lack of balance (many individual theologians and the Anabaptists as a group received disproportionately extensive treatment; creeds and confessions received little to no attention). Estep's understanding of political and economic (non-Theological) issues, and their bearing on the development of the church's theology and polity, may be the most valuable feature of his work in this book. His Arminian commitments are most clear in his vilification of Gomarus and dismissal of the Synod of Dort.