(Ebook) The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation by Alister E. McGrath ISBN 9780631229407, 9780631229391, 0631229396, 063122940X

(Ebook) The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation by Alister E. McGrath ISBN 9780631229407, 9780631229391, 0631229396, 063122940X

Being something of an armchair church historian, it was with a good bit of interest that I picked this book up. The Reformation was a very complex set of events on religious, political, technological and economic fronts; to understand the theological developments that gave rise to someone such as Luther is often made difficult amidst the seemingly unending narratives of socio-political upheaval and the rise of merchant classes. Hence, a volume such as this, devoted to the intellectual origins of the Reformation, comes for this reader as a welcome addition to my library.Towards the end of the book McGrath, citing B. B. Warfield, sums up what the Reformation was: the triumph of Augustine's theology of grace *over* Augustine's theology of the Church. The Reformation, often mis-characterized as a return to the Scriptures was, in fact, the cementing of a particular reading of Augustine which was, at the same time, a hermeneutic for reading the Bible. In fact, the Reformation owes very little to any real theological break; certain trends in late Medieval thought are what gave Luther (more so than Zwingli) the tools for cementing a theology that eventually broke the mold that gave birth to it.McGrath is a thorough historian, noting that the Reformation was really a collection of local reformations, the earliest of which were the Lutheran and Swiss. The difference between the Lutheran and Swiss reformations could not have been more different, it would seem; the former was concentrated in certain readings of Augustine and confined to the university, while the latter was concerned far more with moral exactitude among the clergy. The Lutheran Reformation appears to be far more in keeping with late medieval Scholasticism, whereas the Swiss Reformation appears to be more of a break done along moralistic-political lines.This book focuses more upon the origins of the Reformation, and therefore the Reformation in its earlier stages; references to reformers such as John Calvin are largely to the side. However, what McGrath offers are tantalizing bits - particularly a short statement that Calvin did much to bring the Swiss and Lutheran reformations together. Yet, because Calvin is among second generation of Swiss reformers, McGrath does not follow up on this noodle.This is an excellent, excellent volume. I highly recommend it to everyone interested in the Reformation, particularly those who view the Reformation as being either extremely disastrous or as being extremely triumphant. It was neither. Rather, it was the triumph of a particular reading - and questions of hermeneutics present themselves constantly throughout the book - of Augustine and through Augustine, the Bible. It was the triumph of particular themes at the expense of others - most problematically, the sacrifice of any notion of the Church as a catholic (= universal) and unified body.Regardless of how one feels about how the Reformation ended (has it ended???), it is well worth noting how it began: and this book illuminates just that.