Brad S. Gregory

Professor Gregory does a decent job of narrating the events of the narration, but his course falls short for several reasons. First, he doesn't provide proper historical background. The Catholic Church, after all, had already suffered a split in its schism with the Eastern Orthodox Church centuries before, so Professor's Gregory's repeated characterization of the Catholic Church as the "one church" is just wrong. Yes, he has narrowed his focus to the West, but this background is essential to understand the deep-rooted doctrinal issues plaguing the Catholic Church. Second, he sums up the effects of the Reformation as being best for Radical Protestants, second best for Catholics (who Church renewed itself in response to the Reformation), and worst for Non-Radical Protestants (e.g., Lutherans, Anglicans, etc.) This is beyond absurd, since without the Reformation, there would have been no Lutheran or Anglican Church. Professor Gregory seems to think that since Protestantism split into so many branches after the Reformation, that somehow that makes it a loser. But enough about the churches; there isn't much good to say about any of them with their massacres, holy wars, and burning of heretics. As the Professor points out, of course, we can't look back with superiority to the violence of the 16th Century given the horrors of the 20th Century and those probably to come in the present century. Religion failed to unite the world in brotherhood/sisterhood, and there doesn't seem to be any other ideology that has done so either--not democracy, not Communism, not anything else. Perhaps this is due to the inescapable fact that there can be no unity when so many people--in every country--are so poorly educated and so incapable of even making rational analyses and choices. Yes, I'm a pessimist--and a realist. I'll see out other books and courses on the Reformation and see if my opinion changes. Stay tuned.… (més)

While it has taken me far longer than I had hoped to read this book, I am very glad that I have read this. For a number of years I have argued that Liberalism began in the Reformation and that is backed up by this book. It asked questions that I had not thought of and it has pointed me in directions that have opened my thinking.

How could the Universities brush Christianity aside so easily, even though it took a long time?

Why did rationalism seem like such a good answer, but it failed to provide the answers that it promised?

Why don't we live in a more Christian society, when that was the aim of the Protestant reformers?

This is not a light read, it is an academic book written by an academic, but with that proviso I think that the book is excellent.… (més)

The author lays out his argument in a thorough and well documented proportion viz. that the roots of the Protestant Reformation are still with us and have accelerated the secularization of knowledge, the dissolution of an agreed upon moral code and promoted avarice and the accumulation of wealth through unbridled capitalism. Not all at once of course but our manner of viewing History has been “fissiparous” at best. The cry of “Sola Scriptura” that led away from the hegemony of the Medieval Roman Church did not arrive at independence but divisiveness, argumentation and rigid control of social mores (where possible). Theology was removed from the university curriculum or relegated to Religion Studies; science and reason bolstered the Enlightenment where “God was Dead” and it became more difficult to find answers to “life questions”. To dispel the occasional miasma of academic fog there are 145 pages of footnotes. The author very deftly provides a broad historical perspective, well worth this reader’s attention. Like any good book, it not only tells its narrative but also promotes questions…many questions.… (més)