Enacting the Reformation in Germany: Essays on Institution and Reception

by Gerald Strauss

Overview

Enacting the Reformation in Germany brings together sixteen essays and articles written over a thirty-year period by a historian who has made it his special scholarly concern to trace and analyze the social consequences of the German Reformation's salient ideas and positions. The picture Strauss draws of a country and a society struggling to understand and incorporate the deep structural and mental changes brought on by Martin Luther's revolt against Rome has the sharpness and contrast of a visual image.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780860783510
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/04/1993
Series:	Variorum Collected Studies
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Contents: Provisional Contents: Preface; The course of German history: the Lutheran interpretation; The image of Germany in the 16th century; The production of Johann Stumpf’s description of the Swiss Confederation; Protestant dogma and city government: the case of Nuremberg; The religious policies of Dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig X of Bavaria in the first decade of the Protestant era; Luther as Barabbas; The state of pedagogical theory c. 1530: what Protestant reformers knew about education; The social function of schools in the Lutheran Reformation in Germany; Liberal or illiberal arts?; Lutheranism and literacy: a reassessment; Success and failure in the German Reformation; The Reformation and its public in an age of orthodoxy; How to read a Volksbuch: the Faust book of 1587; Three kinds of Christian freedom: law, liberty, and license in the German Reformation; The dilemma of popular history; The idea of order in the German Reformation; Index.

Editorial Reviews

Based on the assumption that history is made by both prominent and obscure individuals responding to possibilities and struggling against constraints in their efforts to pursue goals that they themselves don't always grasp clearly, discusses the political and historical situation in 16th-century Germany, some of the political agendas flying around at the time, the early Protestant propaganda and education, and contemporary and subsequent perspectives on the Reformation. One essay is original, the other 16 are reproduced from their original publication 1958-91. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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