The Roots of the Reformation

by Evans, G. R.

• ISBN13: 9780830839476
• ISBN10: 083083947X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-31
• Publisher: Intervarsity Pr

Summary

Renowned historian, G. R. Evans, revisits the question of what happened at the Reformation. Contravening traditional paradigms of interpretation, Evans charts the controversies and challenges that roiled the era of the Reformation and argues that these are really part of a much longer history of discussion and disputation. Evans takes up several issues, such as Scripture, ecclesiology, authority, sacraments and ecclesio-political relations, and traces the shape of the charged discussions that orbited around these through the patristic, medieval and Reformation eras. In this, she demonstrates that in many ways the Reformation was in considerable continuity with the periods that preceded it, though the consequential outcome of the debates in the sixteenth century was dramatically different.

Author Biography

G. R. Evans is professor of medieval theology and intellectual history at the University of Cambridge and was British Academy Research Reader in Theology from 1986 to 1988. She has written on a wide range of medieval authors, including Augustine, Gregory the Great, Anselm, Bernard of Clairvaux and Alan of Lille. She has also written The Language and Logic of the Bible (Cambridge University Press) and Faith in the Medieval World (Inter Varsity Press).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 9
Acknowledgments	p. 11
Abbreviations	p. 13
Setting the Scene: The "Fair Field of Folk"	p. 15
Bible and Church: The Questions Begin
The Idea of Church	p. 23
A New Idea	p. 23
The Emergence of Ministers as Leaders	p. 27
Local Churches and the Universal Church	p. 33
The Idea of Faith	p. 37
What Do We Believe? Trying to Put the Faith in a Nutshell	p. 37
One Faith and Different Rites	p. 44
Where Was the Bible?	p. 48
Adding to the Old Testament	p. 48
Creating a Standard Text of the Bible for Use in the West	p. 53
The Ministry of 'the Word in the Early Church	p. 56
Finding Many Meanings in Scripture	p. 59
Becoming and Remaining a Member of the Church	p. 67
The Doctrine of Baptism Emerges	p. 67
Insiders and Outsiders: Cyprian and the Rigorist Approach to the Problem of Apostasy	p. 73
Penance and the Recurring Problem of Sin	p. 79
The Eucharist and the Idea of Sacraments	p. 90
Eucharist	p. 90
Sacraments	p. 94
Organization, Making Decisions and Keeping Together	p. 97
Councils and Other Ways of Making Decisions	p. 97
The Fifteenth-Century Bid for Conciliarism Instead of Primatial Government of the Church	p. 102
The Church and the State	p. 117
The Two Swords	p. 117
The Body Politic, the City, the Corporation and the Church	p. 126
Titles and Benefices and the Growing Problem of the Church's Wealth	p. 130
Continuity and Change in the Middle Ages
Monastic Life, Monastic Education and Awakening Social Concerns	p. 137
Guibert of Nogent: Monk and Social Commentator	p. 137
Monasteries as Powerhouses of Education	p. 148
The Beginning of Academic Theology and the Invention of Universities	p. 155
The Invention of Universities	p. 155
Bible Study and the Beginning of Academic Theology	p. 171
The Evangelical Urge and the Wandering Preachers	p. 181
Preaching Becomes Popular Again	p. 181
The Formal Rhetorical Art of Preaching	p. 188
The Franciscans and the Dominicans	p. 192
Religious Experiments by the Laity	p. 205
Working People, Active Orders	p. 205
Exemplary Individuals and Being an Example to Others	p. 209
Glimpses of Ordinary Lives: Learning What to Believe and How to Live	p. 216
The Church Fosters the Mixed Life	p. 221
Rebels, Dissidents and Repression	p. 225
Social Comment and the Debate About Poverty	p. 225
John Wyclif	p. 230
Popular Preaching and the Bible in the Later Middle Ages	p. 243
Wycliffites, Lollards and the English Bible	p. 243
Lollard Preaching and the Bible	p. 247
Continuity and Change from the Reformation
Renaissance	p. 253
The Rediscovery of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures	p. 253
The Biblical Languages and the Universities	p. 264
Humanism or Scholasticism: The Two Ways	p. 270
Luther and His Heirs: The Moderate Reformers	p. 287
The Conversion of Martin Luther and Its Consequences	p. 287
Melanchthon, Moderation and Building a Bridge Between the Academic and the Popular	p. 299
Creating a Lutheran Doctrinal System	p. 308
Henry VIII and English Lutheranism	p. 319
Peaceful Extremists? The Anabaptist Heirs of the Waldensians	p. 333
Huldreich Zwingli and the Battle with the Anabaptists	p. 333
Lutheran "Good Citizensö and Anabaptist "Anarchy"	p. 336
Calvin and His Heirs: The Puritan Reformers	p. 341
John Calvin	p. 341
France, Huguenots and Some Notable Women	p. 350
John Knox and Scotland	p. 353
The English Reformation Turns Calvinist	p. 360
Puritans Leave for the New World	p. 380
The Counter-Reformation	p. 393
Responding to the Challenge: Reforming Moves in Rome	p. 393
Science and the Bible from a Roman Catholic Perspective	p. 402
Church and State Again: New Political Dimension of the Idea of Order	p. 408
Bible Questions Continue	p. 419
Taking a Stand on the King James Version?	p. 419
The Bible in Use: Private Reading and Personal Opinions	p. 431
Bible Commentary in Preaching and Teaching	p. 435
Polyglot Bibles	p. 453
Translation Theory Moves On	p. 459
Conclusion	p. 463
Handlist of Reformation Concerns and Their History	p. 473
Bibliography	p. 501
Author Index	p. 515
Subject Index	p. 519
Scripture Index	p. 528
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