| Title | : | All Things Made New: The Reformation and Its Legacy |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0190616814 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780190616816 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 464 |
| Publication | : | Published September 1, 2016 |
The Reformation may have launched a social revolution, MacCulloch argues, but it was not caused by social and economic forces, or even by a secular idea like nationalism; it sprang from a big idea about death, salvation, and the afterlife. This idea - that salvation was entirely in God's hands and there was nothing humans could do to alter his decision - ended the Catholic Church's monopoly in Europe and altered the trajectory of the entire future of the West.
By turns passionate, funny, meditative, and subversive, All Things Made New takes readers onto fascinating new ground, exploring the original conflicts of the Reformation and cutting through prejudices that continue to distort popular conceptions of a religious divide still with us after five centuries. This monumental work, from one of the most distinguished scholars of Christianity writing today, explores the ways in which historians have told the tale of the Reformation, why their interpretations have changed so dramatically over time, and ultimately, how the contested legacy of this revolution continues to impact the world today.
All Things Made New: The Reformation and Its Legacy Reviews
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This book is a collection of twenty-two essays on various aspects of the Reformation taken from a quarter century of the author's work. All these essays have been previously published in various journals and publications; some of them are book reviews and some are freestanding studies of particular topics. The author has previously written Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490–1700 (2003) which serves as his definitive take on the subject. This book is more of series of spotlights on miscellaneous details which presumably weren't included in his history. The author is Anglican and unsurprisingly the English Reformation gets most of his attention in this book.
The following are my comments and selected quotations taken from the various chapters to serve as future reference to help me recall the chapter's contents. What I've written is better indication of things of interest to me than they are summaries of chapter contents.
Chapter 1, Christianity: The Bigger Picture
This chapter impressed me as a brief review of his book, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years which I have previously reviewed at
this link. This chapter serves as a reminder that the sixteenth century Reformation is a small segment of a much bigger story.
Chapter 2, Angels and the Reformation
Angels serve much the same purpose as Mary in the Roman Catholic Church by serving as an intermediary between humans and God. "Luther never lost his warm devotion either to Mary or angels; with characteristic energy, he took delight in remolding these feelings to bolster his deep Christocentricity. Calvin, preoccupied with the danger of idolatry, was sour about both Mary and angels, grudgingly unable to deny their place in God's purpose but unwilling to make undue fuss about it in case it gave people the wrong idea."
Chapter 3, The Virgin Mary and Protestant Reformers
The mainline reformers had ambiguous feelings about Mary. "On the one hand they saw it as a major work of piety to demolish and demystify the cultic and devotional world of which she was the centerpiece. On they other, they needed her as a bastion to defend ... against the more militant forces which the Reformation had unleashed. They wished her to play her part in the biblical narrative ... which they felt was threatened from the two opposed forces of papistry and radicalism."
Chapter 4, John Calvin
I was intrigued with the author's noting a similarity of Calvin (as an outsider) taking over the responsibility of determining the "correct" faith in Geneva to that of the radical militant anabaptist John of Leiden taking over Münster. Of course Calvin focused much of his writing efforts at showing how different he was from anything Anabaptist.
Chapter 5, The Council of Trent
I have always assumed that the purpose of the Council of Trent was to differentiate and protect the Catholic Church from Protestants. Since Luther made such a big deal about "grace," I assumed Trent would have been working up their view on the subject. It turns out that the big controversial issue discussed at Trent was "... whether or not bishops should reside in their dioceses or are entitled to be absentees. In fact the Council nearly imploded over this question of non-residence."
Chapter 6, The Italian Inquisition
I'll skip the gritty details of this subject to note that "...the enterprising publishers of Europe...looked eagerly to the latest edition of the Index and used it as a library-list for advertising their wares to good Protestants and not-so-good Catholics."
Chapter 7, Tudor Royal Image-Making
The nuisance that Parliament made of themselves is part of the reason royalty has survived so long in England. Oliver Cromwell was very successful in "...creating a single British Isles for the first time in the history of the Atlantic archipelago. The trouble was that his triumph was bought with the backing of a large army which most of the English detested, and no amount of spin would alter that."
Chapter 8, Henry VIII, pious king
Henry VIII thought very highly of himself and apparently had no problem with the fact that his theology changed over time. "What united the diverse strands of Henry's religious policy? Apparently it was Henry's conviction of his unique relationship with God as his anointed deputy on earth, a conviction strong enough to be shared by his devoted but not uncritical admirer Cranmer."
Chapter 9, Tolerant Cranmer?
It's interesting to note that Cranmer was more tolerant of Catholics than radical reformers (a.k.a. Anabaptists). It was understandable that Catholics would require some time to be persuaded to change from years of past teachings. On the other extreme, the radical reformers were beyond the pale and deserved no tolerance.
Chapter 10, The Making of the Prayer Book
The Church of England's Prayer Book "...was the literary text most thoroughly known by most people in this country..." from the sixteenth century to at least 1800.
Chapter 11, Tudor Queens Mary and Elizabeth
Back in those days a change in administration of the government was a matter of life and death for many government officials. "Both women started with success... But Elizabeth from the outset of her reign steadily built on advantage; Mary did not."
Chapter 12, William Byrd
William Byrd (1543–1623) was a musical composer and produced sacred music for Anglican services. Later in life he became a Roman Catholic. One interesting thing I learned from this chapter was that the reformers were headed toward doing away with fancy music and pipe organs in particular until Queen Elizabeth came along and saved them. Elizabeth loved vocal music, and thanks to her early support England has since contributed much to the world of sacred music.
Chapter 13, the Bible before King James
Tyndale's translation into English included the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament, but his work was cut short by being executed by the Holy Roman Emperor. The scholars completed the task with what came to be known as the Geneva Bible. Nine-tenths of the Authorized Version's New Testament (a.k.a. King James version) is the same as the same as Tyndale's.
Chapter 14, The King James Bible
One of the motivations of authorizing the King James version was the criticism of Catholic scholars who were finding errors in many of the early Protestant versions. The almost universal acceptance of the King James version by English speaking Protestants is a function of lucky timing thanks to James I being king of both Scotland and England. "...there are 257 instances of the KJB being the most likely candidate to have created a phrase in current use in English, although the total reduces to eighteen if we look austerely for exact phrases from the KJB with no know source earlier than the KJB. This figure of 257 is about three times that which can on similar principles be attributed to the works of Shakespeare, ..." The KJB translators used much of the work of William Tyndale "...except where (in accordance with the brief which King James gave them) they felt that it needed to sound more like the parish church than the alehouse."
Chapter 15, The Bay Psalm Book
The Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed in British North America. The book is a metrical Psalter, first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I thought the following was an interesting example in biblical translation of Psalm 23 in rhyme.The Lord to mee a shepheard is
An original copy of the Bay Psalm Book sold for $14.2 million in 2013. (Only eleven known specimens still exist.)
— want therefore shall not I.
Hee in the folds of tender-grasse
— doth cause mee downe to lie:
To waters calme me gently leads
— Restore my soule doth hee:
he doth in paths of righteousness
— for his names sake leade mee.
Chapter 16, Putting the English Reformation on the Map
There are two competing worlds within the Church of England, "...one, the sacramental world of theologians ... that still values real presence, bishops and beauty; and the other the world of the Elizabethan Reformation, which rejects shrines and images, which rejects real presence, which values law and moral regulation based on both Old and New Testament precept."
Chapter 17, The Latitude of the Church of England
This is sort of a continuation of the previous chapter and explores the "theological latitude" within the Church of England. Reference was made to the "
Oxford Movement." I had to look that one up. The chapter seems to be an account of history of push and pull in various directions. "Anglicanism has been asking question about latitude ever since; but perhaps it has been hiding from some of the answers."
Chapter 18, Modern Historians on the English Reformation
This chapter provides the author's overview of the state of historical scholarship of Reformation studies.
Chapter 19, Thomas Cranmer's Biographers
The author wrote his own biography of Thomas Cranmer published in 1996. Here he gives an overview of the various sources and biographies of Cranmer. Needless to say, the opinions of Thomas Cranmer vary widely from evil of saintly.
Chapter 20, Richard Hooker's Reputation
Richard Hooker (1554 – 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian. His seven volume work that in the years since his death has sort of become the theology of the Church of England. Since Hooker strived to describe a center position and the fact that he wrote so much, it has been possible for both sides in the theological debates to quote Hooker to their advantage.
Chapter 21, Forging Reformation History: a cautionary tale
This chapter is about Robert Ware of Dublin (1639-97) who created a number of forgeries of historical documents that entered in the written histories of the Church of England. His invented documents misled historians of the Protestant Reformation for centuries afterwards. Finally, the forgeries were exposed in 1890, but it was not until the 20th century that historians were able to sort out the damage done. One of interesting things about him is that he was creative in the fictional stories he created. Some of his stories were so improbable that it appears the he was tempting fate to see how much he could get away with.
Chapter 22, And Finally: the nature of Anglicanism
"Journalist love to write about the crisis of Anglicanism over women and gays, ... Headline-writers don't seem to realize the Anglican crisis began in 1533, and has not stopped since. That is why it is so satisfying to be an Anglican. Anglicanism is a trial-and-error form of Christianity; it has made mistakes in the past (losing the Dissenters and the Methodists being two of the worst, not to mention killing Roman Catholics), and it can feel honestly rueful about them. Anglicanism is an approach to God which acknowledges that He is often good at remaining silent and provoking more questions than answers. Anglicans are not afraid to argue in public."
The following is a link to some quotations from this book:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes... -
This is a collection of essays on various aspects of the (English) Reformation and all these essays have been previously published in as book reviews or essay on specific aspects. MacCulloch as a gay, ordained C of E Deacon and Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford has lots to say on the Reformation - (see his big, fat but fascinating book "Reformation: Europe's House Divided"). The articles are scholarly but accessible and leavened with a dry wit.
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MacCulloch is an Anglican deacon and scholar with an expertise in church history.
In honor of Reformation Day (October 31), I began reading the book. I imagined I'd finish by the end of the month, but I was surprised I was done on November 12.
It's an accessible read, insofar as I was able to read a chapter per day. But in other ways, it's not as accessible to the reader who isn't as familiar with the debates within Reformation church history.
He's writing for the reader who has a strong foundation in the literature of the field and a strong grounding in the intellectual history of the Reformation, especially of the personalities at play. So his discussion goes beyond the mere discussion of the development of the Reformation, but its legacy in scholarship.
I liked the book insofar as it exposed me to earlier debates whose results I had been noticing recently. How do Anglicans and Episcopalians view the Reformation? What have been the stakes at play insofar as how the Reformation is defined and described? What challenges have arisen from the competing perspectives?
I also liked that I became inspired to read and learn more. -
Both for beginners, this follows on from Machullochs reformation history to offer sidelights, home in on points and analyse more obscure figures and points - it's interesting but a bit of a jumble and feels unfocused . Also, the author seems to place the legacy of the Reformation squarely within Anglicanism and the. Counter reformed Catholicism . Other denominations don't get a look in . The essay format gives room for a more opinionated look - while I prefer facts , he is witty and telling at times , irritating at others .
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Fascinating collection of pieces. And on the second-last page, this gem: ”Journalists love to write about the crisis of Anglicanism over women and gays, for it makes a great headline. ‘NOT ALL THAT MANY GO OVER TO ROME’ or ‘EVANGELICALS END UP NOT MAKING QUITE SUCH A FUSS AS THEY HAD PLANNED’ don’t pack a punch in big type.” Love it!
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a bit niche - some good early stuff on the reformation, especially as it happened in England. But it gets a bit bogged down in essays about Hooker and those who came after. It has some sharp insights, but maybe more a book to selectively dip into than read cover to cover.
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This is a collection of essays with special emphasis on the English Reformation. All are compelling, but a may be a bit too specialized for the general reader. As usual, MacCulloch gives a very honest, objective and fair assessment.
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hard going at times, McVulloch explores the naure of Anglicanism. He shows how a diverse, reltively non-dogmatic religion arose in England that is flexible and adapys to change. Inspiring
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Foundational reformation history reading!
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A delightful, sumptuous and engaging collection of essays. An excellent bibliography with great footnotes. A must read for any student of Reformation studies.
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I don't know what is the bigger surprise. That it was published or that somehow I got a copy of it.
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If ever there is a book (other than Holy Scripture) Episcopalians and others in the Anglican Communion should read it is this one!
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An eclectic collection of essays concerning the Protestant Reformation (mainly the English version of it) and its impact on all subsequent history ... illuminating ...
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A couple of useful essays for anyone interested in the history of the Church of England and Anglican identity.
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It is 20 years since MacCulloch's ground-breaking biography of Thomas Cranmer and he has not been idle since, with significant, not to see massive, books on the Reformation and the history of Christianity. A selection of his writings and reviews on all things Reformation therefore seems timely, if not overdue.
This is, for the most part, an excellent volume which combines scholarship, humility and a good deal of wit. The first two parts are thoroughly entertaining and enlightening. I knew nothing of the Bay Psalter (trivia: the first book published in America) beforehand and there were many other essays which refreshed the old and taught the new.
The third part, the historiography of the Reformation is for a more specialised interest and most readers will lose nothing if they skip this section. The essay on the great Reformation forgery - namely Cranmer's supposed Josiah sermon at Edward VI's coronation, whilst over-lengthy, was at least fascinating in showing how even modern critical scholars like MacCulloch can be duped ("its authenticity does not seem in doubt" states a footnote in the Cranmer biography).
A book that should be read by anyone interested in the history of the English Reformation. -
Diarmaid MacCulloch Revisited
Published September 2016, this is a collection of essays and reviews that have been published separately. Here is MacCulloch at his best: erudition softened by wit and an appreciation of the theological enterprise as necessary, yet always inadequate, frequently corrupt, and sometimes deadly. -
An interesting collection of essays on the Reformation, with a primary focus on England. They vary widely in length, focus, and tone. I found it fascinating to see what a top-notch historian thinks of the debates that shaped and continue to shape our prayer and worship.
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Intriguing, involving and accessible. MacCulloch writes in such an engaging way he makes his subject come alive with passion and fascinating detail.
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This copy received and reviewed for free courtesy of Goodreads Firstreads! -
Fascinating anecdotes. (by BBC Book of the Week)
