Reviews for The Radical Reformation

The average rating for The Radical Reformation based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-04-09 00:00:00 Damon Wright Since college, I try to read a few books a year about medieval/early modern Europe. Apart from the historical and theological insight it provides into the period, this is also an essential collection for anyone interested in the development of modern political categories (liberalism, libertarianism, socialism, communalism, etc). Reading these primary sources gave me a new perspective on the period that I hadn't previously contextualized: The radicals (e.g. Anabaptists and Spiritualists) are basically the "left wing" of the period: openly calling for violent overthrow of the elites. Magisterial reformers like Luther and Zwingli, and their followers, aim to make "gradual change" and are interested in protecting the elitist status quo, with relatively minor changes to the underlying religio-political structure (for them, it's more about "pure" theology than social egalitarianism); they're the wonky liberals. And then there are the "right wing" elites who (violently) oppose both movements. Of course, it doesn't map perfectly because theology was inseparable from politics at the time, but you get the point: there truly is nothing new under the sun. Further, the ultimate downfall of the radicals was in part due to them splitting into smaller and smaller sects based on their interpretation of a pure Christian ideal. They were no longer a unified force against the elites; the left has always eaten itself. You can also see a direct line of revolutionary thought from the radical Reformationists through the Peasants War, to the French and American Revolutions, and subsequent popular revolutions.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-02-20 00:00:00 Burney Hollis Well the Catholic Church wasn't a hierarchy afraid of the people for nothing! The peasants had been revolting throughout the centuries, but organized resistance amongst the Waldensians in the fifteenth century presaged this: the radical, i.e. actual, Reformation. Luther's attack on the church was coincidentally fought at the same time that Europe as a whole was moving from a rural to a primarily urban society in terms of value creation: hence, Luther was just the lucky guy who said what every Catholic monk for a millenia had wanted to say but wasn't caught up in the right (anarchic) economic development to be able to do it. Once the commoners started reading the Bible, and not dozing to it in Latin, they realized that they'd been fucked; hard; in the ass; for a millenia! These are the glorious writings of that historical epiphany and, while they are shrouded in the misty clouds of Christianity, are nevertheless overflowing with that ripe enthusiasm for freedom that grants everything aesthetic and ethical its intrinsic worth and timeless value. Particularly, Hans Dencks' "On the Law of God" is noteworthy for formulating the idea that there is only one law of God: a single stern injunction for class war to end.