Product Description

Reformation Thought is an acclaimed and popular introductory guide to the central ideas of the European reformation for theology and history students.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20553 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 344 pages

Review
"Alister McGrath... is one of the best scholars and teachers of the Reformation.... [this book] is more than one dared ask for.... How teachers will rejoice in this wonderfully useful book." Teaching History (of a previous edition).

"Vigorous, brisk and highly stimulating. The reader will be thoroughly engaged from the outset, and considerably enlightened at the end." John Platt, Pembroke College, University of Oxford (of a previous edition).

"Highly recommended." Choice (of a previous edition).

"A remarkably fine introduction to the study of the Reformation and its theological ideas; it is exceptionally well thought out, fully up to date in its scholarship, fair in its presentation, and simply pellucid in its explanations. Highly recommended." ADRIS (of a previous edition).

"....this second edition of Reformation Tought is very useful, especially in providing a guide to reformation writings and writers (both primary and secondary) for the upper–division or beginning student of Reformation ideas." Elwood E. Mather III, Montana State University.

"McGrath does a good job of summarizing the Reformation′s principal ideas. Reformation Thought is a helpful primer and a genuine counterbalance to polemical Catholic treatments, excessively irenical ecumenical assessments, and secular renditions that minimize or ignore the power of theological ideas to revolutionize a culture." Catholic Dossier

From the Back Cover
Reformation Thought is an acclaimed and popular introductory guide for theology and history students seeking to understand the central ideas of the European reformations. Based on McGrath′s considerable experience of teaching Reformation studies, this text requires no prior knowledge of Christian theology.

The revised third edition:

• Includes a new chapter on the thought of the English Reformation.
  
• Responds to new insights in Renaissance and Reformation scholarship.
  
• Includes increased biographical coverage of major Reformation thinkers.
  
• Contains a new section on Reformation sources and updated bibliographies.
  
• Retains all the features which made earlier editions so attractive to students.

About the Author
Alister E. McGrath is Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Research Lecturer in Theology at Oxford University. He is the author of numerous works in theology, including the best–selling Christian Theology: An Introduction, Second Edition (Blackwell Publishers, 1996).

Customer Reviews

Great introduction to the field
I really enjoyed this book. It explained all the main ideas of major Reformation writers like Luther and Calvin in very simple terms. He did a great job of explaining the background to these ideas in ways that nonspecialists like me could understand. The best bits of the work were his discussion of scholasticism and humanism which really helped me understand more about the background to the reformation. I also really appreciated the way he broke the material down into sections on different topics, like justification, the church, sacraments, and so on. A great read.

Useful Introduction to Reformation Theology.
The explicit intention of McGrath's book is to take the reader deeper into the ideas of the Reformation and its thinkers whilst focusing less on the social and political changes that too place. The book achieves this but I tend to disagree with the author in his claim that many books on the Reformation play down 'thought'; I find the converse to be true, and in this sense McGrath's book is not really unique other than keeping 'thought' as its main focus. It is an interesting read. The author argues for the importance of understanding the impact of the 'schoolmen' on Luther, and humanism on Reformed thought. I'd never really grasped the importance of this previously. Also, he makes clear what Zwingli's programme of reform was all about (social morality rather than justification); all very interesting. McGrath is no great writer however and can be frustratingly repetitive, over-using such phrases as 'in other words' or 'it is becoming increasingly clear'; the book also carries too many typographical errors which is a little worrying for an academic book. The book serves as a very short and clear introduction to Reformation thought with some nice surprises along the way. Also at the end of each chapter, further reading is to be found (including many books by McGrath...)