Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Add The Reformation to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf
Read An Excerpt
Read An Excerpt

The Reformation

A History

By Diarmaid MacCulloch

By Diarmaid MacCulloch

By Diarmaid MacCulloch

By Diarmaid MacCulloch

Best Seller
Paperback $26.00

Mar 25, 2005 | ISBN 9780143035381

Ebook $4.99

Mar 25, 2005 | ISBN 9781101563953

All Formats
+
    The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch
    Paperback $26.00
    Mar 25, 2005 | ISBN 9780143035381

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (1) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $26.00

      Mar 25, 2005 | ISBN 9780143035381

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook

      Mar 25, 2005 | ISBN 9781101563953

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Ebook:

    About The Reformation

    The National Book Critics Circle Award–winning history of the Reformation—from the New York Times bestselling author of Christianity 

    At a time when men and women were prepared to kill—and be killed—for their faith, the Protestant Reformation tore the Western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch’s award-winning history brilliantly re-creates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars, and politicians—from the zealous Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses to the polemical John Calvin to the radical Igantius Loyola, from the tortured Thomas Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.

     

    Drawing together the many strands of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives—overturning ideas of love, sex, death, and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.

    About The Reformation

    The Reformation and Counter-Reformation represented the greatest upheaval in Western society since the collapse of the Roman Empire a millennium before. The consequences of those shattering events are still felt today—from the stark divisions between (and within) Catholic and Protestant countries to the Protestant ideology that governs America, the world’s only remaining superpower.

    In this masterful history, Diarmaid MacCulloch conveys the drama, complexity, and continuing relevance of these events. He offers vivid portraits of the most significant individuals—Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Loyola, Henry VIII, and a number of popes—but also conveys why their ideas were so powerful and how the Reformation affected everyday lives. The result is a landmark book that will be the standard work on the Reformation for years to come. The narrative verve of The Reformation as well as its provocative analysis of American culture’s debt to the period will ensure the book’s wide appeal among history readers.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also by Diarmaid MacCulloch

    Thomas Cromwell
    Monks, the Pope, and the Origins of the Crusades
    Silence
    Christianity
    See all books by Diarmaid MacCulloch

    Also by Diarmaid MacCulloch

    Thomas Cromwell
    Monks, the Pope, and the Origins of the Crusades
    Silence
    Christianity
    See all books by Diarmaid MacCulloch

    About Diarmaid MacCulloch

    Diarmaid MacCulloch is a fellow of St. Cross College, Oxford, and professor of the history of the church at Oxford University. His books include Suffolk and the Tudors, winner of the Royal Historical Society’s Whitfield Prize, and Thomas Cranmer: A Life, which won the… More about Diarmaid MacCulloch

    About Diarmaid MacCulloch

    Diarmaid MacCulloch is a fellow of St. Cross College, Oxford, and professor of the history of the church at Oxford University. His books include Suffolk and the Tudors, winner of the Royal Historical Society’s Whitfield Prize, and Thomas Cranmer: A Life, which won the… More about Diarmaid MacCulloch

    Product Details

    Category: European World History | Religion

    Paperback | $26.00
    Published by Penguin Books
    Mar 25, 2005 | 896 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-7/16 | ISBN 9780143035381

    Category: European World History | Religion

    Ebook | $4.99
    Published by Penguin Books
    Mar 25, 2005 | 864 Pages | ISBN 9781101563953
    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    Praise for The Reformation

     “This isn’t merely ‘a history’ of the Reformation, but rather ‘the history.’ One would be hard put to imagine a more detailed, even-handed, clearly written account of the religious controversies of the sixteenth century. . . . The Reformation is a learned, enlightening, and disturbing masterwork.”
    —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

    “Richly encyclopedic . . . MacCulloch brings the history of the Reformation into vivid focus, providing what must surely be the best general account available.”
    —Financial Times

    “Monumental . . . The Reformation is set to become a landmark.”
    —Lisa Jardine, The Observer

    “Handled here with brilliance, this is the kind of history that normally gives even academic historians vertigo.”                                                                        
    —The Economist

    “Deserves to become the standard history of early modern Europe religion and its legacy, synthesizing and assessing a quarter-century of international scholarship . . . Like the best of historians, he helps us to understand why we are; and why we need not be so.”
    —Ronald Hutton, The Independent
     
    “Wide-ranging, richly layered and captivating . . . This spectacular intellectual history reminds us that the Reformation grew out of the Renaissance, and provides a compelling glimpse of the cultural currents that formed the background to reform. MacCulloch’s magisterial book should become the definitive history of the Reformation.”
    —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

     “A masterpiece of readable scholarship . . . In its field it is the best book ever written.”
    —David Edwards, The Guardian

     “From Politics to witchcraft, from the liturgy to sex; the sweep of European history covered here is breathtakingly panoramic. This is a model work of history.”
    —Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph

    “Excellent . . . There are moments of sheer pleasure. . . . MacCulloch’s well-paced style makes the book seem half its length.”
    —Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The Sunday Times

    Awards

    Atlantic Monthly’s Best Books WINNER

    National Book Critics Circle Awards WINNER

    Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year – Adult WINNER

    Wolfson History Prize WINNER

    Table Of Contents

    Preface and Acknowledgments
    List of Illustrations and Maps
    Introduction

    PART I: A COMMON CULTURE

    1. The Old Church, 1490-1517
    Seeing Salvation in Church. The First Pillar: The Mass and Purgatory. Layfolk at Prayer. The Second Pillar: Papal Primacy. A Pillar Cracks: Politics and the Papacy. Church Versus Commonwealth?

    2. Hopes and Fears, 1490-1517
    Shifting Boundaries. The Iberian Exception. The Iberian Achievement: The Western Church Exported. New Possibilities: Paper and Printing. Humanism: A New World from Books. Putting Renewal into Practice. Reform or the Last Days? Erasmus: Hopes, Fulfilled, Fears Stilled?

    3. New Heaven: New Earth, 1517-24
    The Shadow of Augustine. Luther: A Good Monk, 1483-1517. An Accidental Revolution, 1517-21. Whose Revolution? 1521-22. Evangelical Challenges: Zwingli and Radicalism, 1521-22. Zürich and Wittenberg, 1522-24. The Years of Carnival, 1521-24

    4. Wooing the Magistrate,1524-40
    Europe’s Greatest Rebellion, 1524-25. Princely Churches or Christian Separation, 1525-30. The Birth of Protestantisms, 1529-33. Strassburg: New Rome or New Jerusalem? Kings and Reformers, 1530-40. A New King David? Münster and It’s Aftermath

    5. Reunion Deferred: Catholic and Protestant, 1530-60
    A Southern Revival. Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits. Hopes for a Deal: The 1541-42 Crisis. A Council at Trent: The First Session, 1545-49. Calvin in Geneva: The Reformed Answer to Münster . Calvin and the Eucharist: Protestant Divisions Confirmed. Reformed Protestantism: Alternatives to Calvin, 1540-60

    6. Reunion Scorned, 1547-70
    Crisis for the Habsburgs, 1547-55. 1555: An Emperor’s Exhaustion, a Pope’s Obsession. A Catholic Recovery: England, 1553-58. 1558-59: Turning Points for Dynasties. The Last Session of the Council of Trent, 1561-63. Protestants in Arms: France and the Low Countries, 1562-70

    PART II: EUROPE DIVIDED: 1570-1619

    7. The New Europe Defined, 1569-72
    Northern and Southern Religion. Tridentine Successes. The Catholic Defense of Christendom, 1565-71. Militant Northern Protestants, 1569-72. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572. Poland 1569-76: An Alternative Future? Protestantism and Providence

    8. The North: Protestant Heartlands
    Defining Lutheranism: Toward the Formula of Concord. The “Second Reformation” in Germany. Baltic Religious Contests: Poland-Lithuania and Scandinavia . The Northern Netherlands: Protestant Victory. The Northern Netherlands: The Arminian Crisis . A Reformed Success: Scotland. Elizabethan England: A Reformed Church?. Ireland: The Coming of the Counter-Reformation

    9. The South: Catholic Heartlands
    Italy: The Counter-Reformation’s Heart. Spain and Portugal: King Philip’s Church. The Counter-Reformation as World Mission

    10. Central Europe: Religion Contested
    The Empire and Habsburg Lands: A Shattered Church. Habsburgs, Wittlelsbachs, and a Catholic Recovery. Transylvania: A Reformed srael. France: Collapse of a Kingdom, 1572-98. France: A Late Counter-Reformation

    11. Decision and Destruction, 1618-48

    12. Coda: A British Legacy, 1600-1700
    New English Beginnings: Richard Hooker and Lancelot Andrews. Early Stuart England: The Church’s Golden Age? War in Three Kingdoms, 1638-60. A Spectrum of Protestantisms, 1660-1700. American Beginnings

    PART III: PATTERNS OF LIFE

    13. Changing Times
    Time Endings. Hearing God’s Voice. Fighting Antichrist: Idols. Fighting Antichrist: Witches

    14. Death, Life, and Discipline
    Negotiations with Death and Magic. Telling out the Word. Godly Discipline. A Spirit of Protestantism?

    15. Love and Sex: Staying the Same
    A Common Legacy. The Family in Society. The Fear of Sodomy

    16. Love and Sex: Moving On
    The “Reformation of Manners”. Catholicism, the Family and Celibacy. Protestantism and the Family. Choices in Religion

    17. Outcomes
    Wars of Reformation. Tolerating Difference. Crosscurrents: Humanism and Natural Philosophy. Crosscurrents: Judaism and Doubts. The Enlightenment and Beyond

    Appendix of Texts: Creeds, Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Hail Mary
    Notes
    Further Reading
    Index

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates about Diarmaid MacCulloch
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

     An online magazine for today’s home cook

    An online magazine for today’s home cook