Lutheran Reformers Against Anabaptists

Lutheran Reformers Against Anabaptists
Author: John S. Oyer
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9401192855

Until well into the nineteenth century scholars have repeated a tra ditional view of Anabaptism when they turn to Reformation history. They have regarded the Zwickau Prophets and Thomas Miintzer as the instigators of the movement. The radical disturbance caused by the Prophets and Miintzer in Wittenberg and the Saxon lands spread to Switzerland, there to plague Zwingli and his following. In both regions a radical spiritualism was the dominating element of the movement. Anabaptism reached its peak of development in the forceful establish ment of the Kingdom of Miinster. Most historians have devoted the major part of their discourse on Anabaptism to this model of fanati cism. After the rebellion was suppressed a rather pious but nonetheless harsh converted priest named Menno Simons collected the dispersed elements and attempted to direct them into more peaceful channels. Other leaders, like David J oris, continued the radical spiritualism if not the civil disorder. In this picture of the movement historians have insisted on regarding more highly the similarities rather than the differences in religious ideas of men such as Miintzer, Storch, Carlstadt, Grebel, Manz, Sattler, Denk, Marpeck, Matthys, Jan van Leyden, Joris, and Menno Simons. Even a cursory perusal of the writings of the Reformers - particularly those of Luther, Melanchthon, Menius, and Bullinger - reveals the identity of this traditional picture with that of the sixteenth-century polemicists.

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany
Author: Kat Hill
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191047961

When Martin Luther mounted his challenge to the Catholic Church, reform stimulated a range of responses, including radical solutions such as those proposed by theologians of the Anabaptist movement. But how did ordinary Anabaptists, men and women, grapple with the theological and emotional challenges of the Lutheran Reformation? Anabaptism developed along unique lines in the Lutheran heartlands in central Germany, where the movement was made up of scattered groups and did not centre on charismatic leaders as it did elsewhere. Ideas were spread more often by word of mouth than by print, and many Anabaptists had uneven attachment to the movement, recanting and then relapsing. Historiography has neglected Anabaptism in this area, since it had no famous leaders and does not seem to have been numerically strong. Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief challenges these assumptions, revealing how Anabaptism's development in central Germany was fundamentally influenced by its interaction with Lutheran theology. In doing so, it sets a new agenda for understandings of Anabaptism in central Germany, as ordinary individuals created new forms of piety which mingled ideas about brotherhood, baptism, the Eucharist, and gender and sex. Anabaptism in this region was not an isolated sect but an important part of the confessional landscape of the Saxon lands, and continued to shape Lutheran pastoral affairs long after scholarship assumed it had declined. The choices these Anabaptist men and women made sat on a spectrum of solutions to religious concerns raised by the Reformation. Understanding their decisions, therefore, provides new insights into how religious identities were formed in the Reformation era.

Salvation at Stake

Salvation at Stake
Author: Brad S. Gregory
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2001-11-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674264061

Thousands of men and women were executed for incompatible religious views in sixteenth-century Europe. The meaning and significance of those deaths are studied here comparatively for the first time, providing a compelling argument for the importance of martyrdom as both a window onto religious sensibilities and a crucial component in the formation of divergent Christian traditions and identities. Brad S. Gregory explores Protestant, Catholic, and Anabaptist martyrs in a sustained fashion, addressing the similarities and differences in their self-understanding. He traces the processes and impact of their memorialization by co-believers, and he reconstructs the arguments of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities responsible for their deaths. In addition, he assesses the controversy over the meaning of executions for competing views of Christian truth, and the intractable dispute over the distinction between true and false martyrs. He employs a wide range of sources, including pamphlets, martyrologies, theological and devotional treatises, sermons, songs, woodcuts and engravings, correspondence, and legal records. Reconstructing religious motivation, conviction, and behavior in early modern Europe, Gregory shows us the shifting perspectives of authorities willing to kill, martyrs willing to die, martyrologists eager to memorialize, and controversialists keen to dispute.

Reforming Reformation

Reforming Reformation
Author: Thomas F. Mayer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 131706951X

The Reformation used to be singular: a unique event that happened within a tidily circumscribed period of time, in a tightly constrained area and largely because of a single individual. Few students of early modern Europe would now accept this view. Offering a broad overview of current scholarly thinking, this collection undertakes a fundamental rethinking of the many and varied meanings of the term concept and label 'reformation', particularly with regard to the Catholic Church. Accepting the idea of the Reformation as a process or set of processes that cropped up just about anywhere Europeans might be found, the volume explores the consequences of this through an interdisciplinary approach, with contributions from literature, art history, theology and history. By examining a single topic from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives, the volume avoids inadvertently reinforcing disciplinary logic, a common result of the way knowledge has been institutionalized and compartmentalized in research universities over the last century. The result of this is a much more nuanced view of Catholic Reformation, and once that extends consideration much further - both chronologically, geographically and politically - than is often accepted. As such the volume will prove essential reading to anyone interested in early modern religious history.

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany
Author: Kat Hill
Publisher:
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198733542

When Martin Luther mounted his challenge to the Catholic Church, reform stimulated a range of responses, including radical solutions such as those proposed by theologians of the Anabaptist movement. But how did ordinary Anabaptists, men and women, grapple with the theological and emotional challenges of the Lutheran Reformation? Anabaptism developed along unique lines in the Lutheran heartlands in central Germany, where the movement was made up of scattered groups and did not centre on charismatic leaders as it did elsewhere. Ideas were spread more often by word of mouth than by print, and many Anabaptists had uneven attachment to the movement, recanting and then relapsing. Historiography has neglected Anabaptism in this area, since it had no famous leaders and does not seem to have been numerically strong. Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief challenges these assumptions, revealing how Anabaptism's development in central Germany was fundamentally influenced by its interaction with Lutheran theology. In doing so, it sets a new agenda for understandings of Anabaptism in central Germany, as ordinary individuals created new forms of piety which mingled ideas about brotherhood, baptism, the Eucharist, and gender and sex. Anabaptism in this region was not an isolated sect but an important part of the confessional landscape of the Saxon lands, and continued to shape Lutheran pastoral affairs long after scholarship assumed it had declined. The choices these Anabaptist men and women made sat on a spectrum of solutions to religious concerns raised by the Reformation. Understanding their decisions, therefore, provides new insights into how religious identities were formed in the Reformation era.

Handbook of European History 1400-1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation

Handbook of European History 1400-1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation
Author: Thomas Brady
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 751
Release: 2018-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004391681

Preliminary Material /Thomas A. Brady , Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy -- Ideas of Reformatio and Renovatio from the Middle Ages to the Reformation /Gerald Strauss -- Visions of Order in the Canonists and Civilians /Constantin Fasolt -- Voices of Reform from Hus to Erasmus /Erika Rummel -- The Humanist Movement /Ronald G. Witt -- Luther's Reformation /Martin Brecht -- The Popular Reformation /Peter Blickle -- The Urban Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire /Berndt Hamm -- International Calvinism /Robert M. Kingdon -- The Radical Reformation /James M. Stayer -- The New Religious Orders, 1517-1648 /S.J. John Patrick Donnelly -- Catholic Reformation, Counterreformation and Papal Reform in the Sixteenth Century /Elisabeth G. Gleason -- Settlements: The Holy Roman Empire /Thomas A. Brady -- Settlements: The Netherlands /J.J. Woltjer and M.E.H.N. Mout -- Settlements: France /Philip Benedict -- Settlements: The British Isles /W. Ian P. Hazlett -- Settlements: Spain's National Catholicism /Christian Hermann -- Scandinavia, 1397-1560 /Michael F. Metcalf -- Reformation and Counterreformation in East Central Europe /Winfried Eberhard -- New Patterns of Christian Life /Hans-Christoph Rublack -- The Great Witch-Hunt /Brian P. Levack -- Confessional Europe /Heinz Schilling -- The Coinages of Renaissance Europe, circa 1500 /Thomas A. Brady , Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy -- European Rulers, 1400-1650 /Thomas A. Brady , Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy -- Index of Persons /Thomas A. Brady , Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy -- Index of Places /Thomas A. Brady , Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy -- Religions of Europe circa 1580 /Thomas A. Brady , Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy.

T&T Clark Companion to Reformation Theology

T&T Clark Companion to Reformation Theology
Author: David M Whitford
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 522
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567445089

This volume introduces the main theological topics of Reformation theology in a language that is clear and concise. Theology in the Reformation era can be complicated and contentious. This volume aims to cut through the theological jargon and explain what people believed and why. The book begins with an essay that explains to students how one can approach the study of sixteenth century theology. It includes a guide to major events, persons, doctrines, and movements.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther
Author: Alberto Melloni
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 1732
Release: 2017-12-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110499029

The three volumes present the current state of international research on Martin Luther’s life and work and the Reformation's manifold influences on history, churches, politics, culture, philosophy, arts and society up to the 21st century. The work is initiated by the Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII (Bologna) in cooperation with the European network Refo500. This handbook is also available in German.

The Radical Reformation, 3rd ed.

The Radical Reformation, 3rd ed.
Author: George Huntston Williams
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 1562
Release: 1995-04-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0271091347

George Williams' monumental The Radical Reformation has been an essential reference work for historians of early modern Europe, narrating in rich, interpretative detail the interconnected stories of radical groups operating at the margins of the mainline Reformation. In its scope—spanning all of Europe from Spain to Poland, from Denmark to Italy—and its erudition, The Radical Reformation is without peer. Now in paperback format, Williams' magnum opus should be considered for any university-level course on the Reformation.

Anabaptists and the Sword

Anabaptists and the Sword
Author: James M. Stayer
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2002-08-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1592440193

Anabaptists and the Sword (1972; revised edn. 1976) is the first book to challenge the consensus, dating from the seventeenth century, that sixteenth-century Anabaptists were nonresistants, or Christian pacifists. While recognizing the importance of the nonresistance tradition among Anabaptists, the book gives equal attention to more militant elements in Anabaptism. It is also pioneering in giving attention to Anabaptist practice as well as Anabaptist teaching on this subject.