The European Reformations

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the Reformations of the 16th century for undergraduates. Its analysis begins with the history and historiography of Reformation scholarship, and concludes with an extended reflection on the Reformations' religious, social and cultural legacies. The story line sets the origins of the movement in the context of late-medieval social, economic and religious crises, and traces its differentiation through a series of internal and external crises into various Reformation movements which acquired specificity through confessionalization. The conceptual interpretative framework for the book is that of intellectual and religious history. Throughout the text the complementary events and structures, ideas and social forces, and theology and popular religion are woven into the accounts of the reforming movements and their leaders. Along with textbook coverage of the dialectical relationship of the Reformations and early-modern culture, attention is given to the Reformations' impact on attitudes and legislation concerning social welfare, education, toleration, women and the family, and Jews. The text is supplemented by illustrations, maps, genealogies, a chronology and bibliography.