The Protestant Reformation Significantly Changed Not Only the Church but Also the World and Much of Later History

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The Protestant Reformation significantly changed not only the church but also the world and much of later history. Explore the personalities, conflicts, events, and outcomes of both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic renewal movement of the same era. Examine how these Reformations affected the common people of their time and consider how they might illuminate and assist Christian efforts in our world today. Upon the successful completion of this course, students should have: 1. secured a basic overview of the chronology, geography, main events, significant individuals, and main interpretive questions concerning the Reformation(s) considered historically, theologically, and practically for Christian life today; 2. grasped the main differences and similarities among Protestant reforming movements, but also between Protestant movements and the various strands of Catholic reform; 3. understood the importance of the state for almost all major Reformation developments and brought that understanding to bear on considerations of Christianity and public life (specifically politics) today; 4. understood the most important theological proposals of the various Protestant movements and brought that understanding to bear on questions of Christian theology today; and 5. gained sufficient mastery of main Reformation developments to be able to lead an adult education class in church, or teach a basic undergraduate course, in exploration of this crucial era in the history of Christianity. Day 1 Introduction, syllabus, main interpretive questions; Studying the Reformation: Past and Present; Overview 1450 - 1700 Day 2 Past commemorations of Luther and the Reformation; Main currents from the last Middle Ages; Social, political, economic, and philosophical contexts Day 3 Martin Luther in outline; Luther’s theological dilemma; Luther: the way out Day 4 What difference did it make in Wittenberg in 1525 (marriage, politics, liturgy, the contingencies of history); Why was Zwingli so important? Day 5 The rise of Anabaptism; A radical Reformation or a people’s Reformation?; What was distinctive about the Reformation in Southern Germany? Day 6 The Marburg Colloquy of 1529 and day-to-day differences by 1535; John Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva; The Expansion of Reformed traditions Day 7 England, Scotland, Ireland: outline; The Thirty Nine Articles comparatively considered; The differences reform made in the British Isles Day 8 Catholic reforms: outline; Main achievements: Jesuits, Trent, preaching; What difference did Catholic reforms make? Day 9 Germany: To the Thirty Years War and Beyond; Confessionalism, Confessionalization, Orthodoxy, and Pietism; Art, music, hymnody Day 10 Science and philosophy; The ongoing effects of the Reformation(s); Last words Carlos M. N. Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 (Yale, 2016). Mark Noll, ed., Confessions and Catechisms of the Reformation (Regent Press) .

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Century Historiography of the Radical Reformation
Toward a Definition of Sixteenth - Century habaptism: Twentieth - Century Historiography of the Radical Reformation James R. Coggins Winnipeg "To define the essence is to shape it afresh." - Ernst Troeltsch Twentieth-century Anabaptist historiography has somewhat of the character of Hegelian philosophy, consisting of an already established Protestant-Marxist thesis, a Mennonite antithesis and a recent synthesis. The debate has centred on three major and related issues: geographic origin, intellectual sources, and essence. Complicating these issues has been confusion over the matter of categorization: Just who is to be included among the Anabaptists and who should be assigned to other groups? Indeed, what are the appropriate categories, or groups, in the sixteenth century? This paper will attempt to unravel some of the tangled debate that has gone on concerning these issues. The Protestant interpretation of Anabaptism has the longest aca- demic tradition, going back to the sixteenth century. Developed by such Protestant theologians and churchmen as Bullinger, Melanchthon, Men- ius, Rhegius and Luther who wrote works defining and attacking Ana- baptism, this interpretation arose out of the Protestant understanding of the church. Sixteenth-century Protestants believed in a single universal church corrupted by the Roman Catholic papacy but reformed by them- selves. Anyone claiming to be a Christian but not belonging to the church Joitnlal of Mennonite Stitdies Vol. 4,1986 184 Journal ofMennonite Studies (Catholic or Protestant) was classed as a heretic,' a member of the mis- cellaneous column of God's sixteenth-century army. For convenience all of these "others" were labelled "Anabaptists." Protestants saw the Anabaptists as originating in Saxony with Thomas Muntzer and the Zwickau prophets in 1521 and spreading in subsequent years to Switzerland and other parts of northern Europe.
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