The Reformation: A History

I am reading this book borrowed from my college's library. I am fascinated by the historical events of the Reformation, and the book is well-written and easy to follow. Since I couldn't keep the loaned book for too long, I decided to buy one from Amazon Singapore. The packaging and delivery are excellent. However, I am disappointed with the quality of the paperback version. It looks like a photocopied and inauthentic work. The papers are fragile, the ink is blurry, and the covers aren't solid.

Don't be put off by the size of this book or the size of the subject. The book will give you the "who, what, where, when and why" of the Reformation in smooth, clear and inviting prose. MacCulloch makes fine and fascinating distinctions about a breathtaking amount of material, as he puts in rich full context a battle of ideas that is still being fought today. For all its brilliance, this book is actually great fun. For the mainstream reader it is a treasure. I can not recommend it enough. --- Added 2008. ----- Having now spent over a year and a half reading this book, studying in it, underlining passages and writing in just about every margin, I have to return to my review here and try to do justice to the mammoth accomplishment of this work.---- It is a full multi-course education in one of the most baffling and violent periods in history, during which thousands died for varying religious positions, and we in America are some of the inheritors of the violence and theological speculation and doctrinal decisions of these times. ----- This book gives full rich portraits of Protestants and Catholics alike, striving to bring to us an understanding of how these men and women of religion saw themselves and their relationship to God, and why they were willing to go to such lengths for their beliefs.------ And, as the jacket copy tells us: "MacCullogh examines the impact of the Reformation on ordinary lives." ----- This is of immense value because we are, I think, still in the midst of religious revolution and reformation today. ---- Possibly we always will be.---- As Christians, we are part of a quarreling religion, a religion with great respect for debate and contrary opinion, yet a religion that strives constantly to put an end to all debate with inspired positions. ---- It never seems to come to that. ---- Our debates, within our denominations, and within the great church as a whole, go on. ---This book deals with some of the most vital and most fateful quarrels in which we've ever been involved, and to understand ourselves better, we need to know about them. ------ I recommend this book whole heartedly for a confrontation with our own religious obsessions and attitudes towards a whole range of life's most serious questions, including those pertaining to family life. --- For those presently watching the new spate of films and mini series about Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I, this book provides a great resource for examination of the misunderstandings, tragedies and accomplishments of the era which do not always make it to film. ---- Obviously people in America in the year 2008 are obsessed with religion, and nothing will help us more with our obsession than valid observations, and insights such as this book provides. Nothing, except prayer, that is, and an educated examination of our own consciences. -------- Let me add on a practical note the book is filled with valuable cross references. When you come to the life of Luther, for example, you'll find specific page references to Luther elsewhere in the text, and these cross references are of terrific help. The cross references help you to organize what you are discovering here and seeking to absorb, which is, of course, an immense mount. ---- For Catholics, this book provides a particularly rich description of what we call the Counter Reformation, and it seems to me that MacCulloch is as insightful and even handed here as he is with Protestant personalities and developments. ----- One final note: sink into this book. Sink into it. You may come out disagreeing with some of MacCullogh's views, but the book is bound to teach you more than you can possibly dream. ---- You will want to read biographies of people of whom you perhaps knew nothing before you started here. You will want the education to go on. ---- Recommended for everyone --- the armchair historian, the scholar, the teacher, the professional historian, the person who just wants to know! --- for us all.

Well written, full of significant information-like an encyclopedia of middle ages politics & religion

I've just finished reading this and I already know that I'll be returning to it for reference and probably rereading sections as well. There is just so much history wrapped up in this single volume that it would be impossible to remember or understand all of it in one read. MacCullouch does a fine job of balancing the views and actions of Catholics and all the versions of Protestants that arose from the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The core of the argument between these two varieties of Christianity is whether the Bible should be the go-to guide (Protestant) or whether the Church's teachings are of primary importance (Catholic). Of course, like all human endeavors, religion, politics, economics, art, and personality cults all play their role in history. This is an area of history that I've generally avoided, as my area of interest is nineteenth-century England and technology. But when I realized that I wasn't understanding some social issues because their roots lie in the Reformation, I signed up for a graduate-level Renaissance and Reformation class. MacCullouch's book is one of several on the reading list, but the only one aimed at the Reformation. At first glance, this 708-page text (plus notes, bibliography, and index) looks overwhelming, especially if you have to read it in a short amount of time, such as in a class. But I found the professor's writing style to be very clear and it wasn't a chore to read the book. I had so many "aha!" moments when reading this book I can't begin to list them here. Some other reviewers have complained that this single book cannot span the historical and intellectual range of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and they're right. No single book or author could accomplish that. But what MacCullouch has done is to write a very readable single volume that introduces many of the themes of that history. He does not focus on a single individual, although some, such as Luther, were certainly very important in the history of the Reformation and are mentioned much more than once. That is to be expected, but it doesn't detract from the quality of the material, and it doesn't mean that MacCullouch never writes about anyone else. He does. What perhaps was most helpful to me was the last chapter, which summed up some of the current-day arguments over religious beliefs, both in America and Europe, and pointed out how they are just ongoing examples of what amounts to a continuation of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. If you have any curiosity about this era or want to understand the breach between Catholicism and Protestantism, this book is an excellent first choice. Just be forewarned that, while this book is not exceedingly difficult, neither is it a "dummies" book, and you should come to it knowing a little history in order to get the most out of it. Don't be put off by the sheer size of the book.