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Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650

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Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650

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Overview

A lively, expansive history of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and the momentous changes they set in motion

This fast-paced survey of Western civilization’s transition from the Middle Ages to modernity brings that tumultuous period vividly to life. Carlos Eire, popular professor and gifted writer, chronicles the two-hundred-year era of the Renaissance and Reformation with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. Eire connects the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in new and profound ways, and he demonstrates convincingly that this crucial turning point in history not only affected people long gone, but continues to shape our world and define who we are today.

The book focuses on the vast changes that took place in Western civilization between 1450 and 1650, from Gutenberg’s printing press and the subsequent revolution in the spread of ideas to the close of the Thirty Years’ War. Eire devotes equal attention to the various Protestant traditions and churches as well as to Catholicism, skepticism, and secularism, and he takes into account the expansion of European culture and religion into other lands, particularly the Americas and Asia. He also underscores how changes in religion transformed the Western secular world. A book created with students and nonspecialists in mind, Reformations is an inspiring, provocative volume for any reader who is curious about the role of ideas and beliefs in history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300240030
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	920
Sales rank:	548,878
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Carlos M. N. Eire is the T. L. Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies, Yale University. He is the author of several scholarly books and two memoirs, including Waiting for Snow in Havana, for which he received the National Book Award.

Preface vii

Part 1 On the Edge 1

Prelude: Rome, 1450 1

1 An Age of Breakthroughs 3

2 Religion in Late Medieval Christendom 19

3 Reform and Dissent in the Late Middle Ages 43

4 Italian Humanism 64

5 Humanism Beyond Italy 86

6 Forerunners of the Catholic Reformation 114

Part 2 Protestants 131

Prelude: Rome, 1510 131

7 Luther: From Student to Monk 133

8 Luther: From Rebel to Heretic 158

9 Luther: The Reactionary 185

10 The Swiss Reformation 218

11 The Radical Reformation 248

12 Calvin and Calvinism 286

13 England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, 1521-1603 318

Part 3 Catholics 367

Prelude: Rome, 1564 367

14 Catholic Reform: Facing the Challenge 369

15 Catholic Reform: Healing the Body of Christ 389

16 Catholic Reform: Fashioning a New Clergy 414

17 Catholic Reform: The Society of Jesus 442

18 Missions to the New World 466

19 Missions to the East Indies 498

Part 4 Consequences 523

Prelude: Rome, 1626 523

20 The Age of Religious Wars 525

21 The Age of Orthodoxy 562

22 The Confessional Age 586

23 The Age of Devils 618

24 The Age of Reasonable Doubt 660

25 The Age of Outcomes 691

26 The Spirit of the Age 719

Epilogue. Assessing the Reformations 741

Notes 759

Bibliography 783

Illustration Credits 857

Index 867

Interviews

What prompted you to write this book?
At the very beginning, I had two goals in mind. One was to produce a more wide-ranging survey for my own students, the other was to gather all the advances being made in research on this pivotal era. By the time the book neared completion—ten years after I began working on it—it had become obvious that the boundaries of the project had to expand due to new understandings of the early modern period. Also, I realized that I could, and should, reach a broader audience, including readers beyond the classroom.

How is your book unique?
Unlike other surveys of this time period, Reformations encompasses each of the various competing branches of the Protestant Reformation and the totality of the Catholic Reformation. Also, I cover over two centuries so as to integrate the long-term outcomes of the Reformations with their beginnings. And, this book expands the horizons of traditional narratives by encompassing the Americas and Asia while also integrating religious, intellectual, social, cultural, political, and economic history.

What can you tell us about the interesting art in the book?
Due to the invention of the printing press, the era of the Reformations was the first in which mass-produced images could be distributed and consumed. A history of this period would be incomplete without images. The illustrations include a vast array of media, from paintings and statues to engravings and book pages. The phrase “one picture is worth a thousand words” certainly applies to this period of history and to this book in particular.

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Editorial Reviews

Eire’s vast learning is on display throughout this enormous (and handsomely illustrated) work.”—Michael Massing, New York Times Book Review

“Monumental”—Charlotte Methuen, Times Literary Supplement

“Reformations is a massive study of early modern Europe, both Protestant and Catholic. It is a volume worth perusing carefully, both to think with and to learn from.”—Prof. Benjamin M. Guyer, Reviews in History

“Among the greatest merits of Eire’s survey are its remarkable clar¬ity in expounding difficult theological ideas and complex political changes, its calm comprehensiveness, and its sober judgments, expressed with an unemphatic evenhandedness. . . . Eire’s majes¬tically comprehensive survey leaves no doubt about the enduring consequences, for good and ill, of the re¬ligious upheavals of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries.”—Eamon Duffy, First Things

“Beguiling . . . Though Eire lays out his argument quite clearly, this is not a thesis-driven book. Rather, it is a detail-rich crosscutting narrative . . . you will learn a great deal and be entertained along the way.”—John Wilson, National Review

“Any serious study of the Reformation’s origins and impact requires a willingness to traverse a veritable minefield of longstanding theological and historiographical arguments . . . Eire does that and more. [Reformations] is likely to become one of the definitive studies of this period.”—Samuel Gregg, Library of Law and Liberty

“Magnificent”—Mark Noll, Books and Culture

"This book is written in lucid, engaging prose that makes each single chapter fly by. That an 800-page book on religious history can be so richly entertaining and illuminating should provide motivation for all theologians to aspire to such scholarship and style."—Ulrich L. Lehner, Theology Studies

“Eire’s impressive book offers the prelude to the exciting pursuit of reform and innovation that has defined the past three centuries.”—Hans J. Hillerbrand, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“A masterpiece”—James Hankins, Claremont Review of Books

"In recent years, [Eire] has adopted the posture of the outsider, an interpreter out of step with the dominant historiographical consensus, and quite unapologetically so. This makes his nearly one-thousand page contribution to the current anniversary-driven Reformationsindustrie all the more interesting."—Nicholas Terpestra, Renaissance and Reformation

"Carlos Eire tells of how religious ideals brought about epochal change, in an era when religion was 'the very marrow of all social, economic, political, and cultural exchanges' . . . Like the early modern era itself, Eire's book is both traditional in some respects and innovative in others."—Vincent Evener, Journal of World History

"Reformation scholars will need to study this fine book carefully, to weigh their own judgments against its timely synthesis, and to evaluate its impressive assembling of evidence for a religious revolution in early modern times.
Some may not agree with every judgment or conclusion, but they will have to admit that, like a fine musical recital, it is a bravura performance."—Philip M. Soergel, Irish Theological Quarterly

“Eire is to be commended for the sheer courage of undertaking such an immense project, and pulling it off in a way that consistently engages the reader.”–Gordon A. Jensen, Canadian Journal of History

“Carlos Eire writes well, and in a consistently thoughtful, inquiring mode. . . . He addresses big, sweeping questions about the impact of the Reformation era courageously and in a thought-provoking manner.”—Euan Cameron, Journal of Modern History

“A great amount of material covered coherently in a readable, often charming style.”—Rudolph P. Almasy, Anglican and Episcopal History

"In its ambition, range, and the quality of its prose and perspective, Eire’s work belongs to the category of instant classics."—C. Scott Dixon, Renaissance Quarterly

Winner of the 2017 American Publishers Awards for Professional & Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) in the European & World History category.

Winner of the 2017 American Publishers Awards for Professional & Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) in the Excellence in Humanities category.

Winner of the 2017 R.R. Hawkins Award given by the American Publishers Awards for Professional & Scholarly Excellence (PROSE).

Carlos Eire’s Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650is the second winner of the The Pelikan Award, a biannual prize awarded by Yale University Press to a distinguished book on religion published by the Press in the previous two years.

“Carlos Eire’s Reformations is a work of remarkable scope and ambition, a magnificent sweep through four centuries, and as many continents, tracing in original and perceptive ways the unforeseeable consequences—in religion, politics, culture, science—of the convulsions that started in western Christianity at the close of the Middle Ages. Eire writes with insight and empathy about the values and visions of a fervent and often violent age. He does not shield us from the strangeness and complexity of the past, but we come away with a much enhanced understanding of the lines connecting it to our present.”—Peter Marshall, University of Warwick

“An ambitious and highly successful project. Wonderfully balanced and nicely nuanced, the book is a genuine tour de force in bringing together the various elements of the Reformations, from their meaning for the educated and sophisticated proponents (and opponents) to their reception (or rejection) by the mass of ordinary and unlettered persons who ‘lived’ amid the swirl of religious change.”—Raymond Mentzer, University of Iowa

“Carlos Eire contributes to our understanding of the Reformations as Europe-wide phenomena, highlights the diversity of Protestantism, and shows how vibrant Catholic reform could be.”—Kathryn A. Edwards, University of South Carolina

“It takes an unusually perceptive, judicious, knowledgeable, and yes brave person to write a book this big and sweeping, given all the ink spelled and trees felled and terabytes devoted to the Reformation, and Carlos Eire is all of those. It is beautifully structured, gracefully written, evenhanded in its treatment of Catholic, Protestant, and Radical movements, and most importantly equally at home in the Reformation and the present. Read this and you will understand both worlds better.”—Craig Harline, Author of Conversions: Two Family Stories from the Reformation and Modern America

From the Publisher

Winner of the 2017 R.R. Hawkins Award given by the American Publishers Awards for Professional & Scholarly Excellence (PROSE).

PROSE

This is certainly a good read . . . this enormous survey is well worth reading for its insights and some shrewd assessments.”—Dr. G. R. Evans, Church Times

Church Times - Dr. G. R. Evans

[Reformations] provides a readable and stimulating overview of European history between 1450 and 1650 (and often well into the 18th century) that is accessible to newcomers to the discipline, while being sufficiently broad and well-researched to be useful to specialists in early modern history who wish to know more about aspects of the period outside of their area of expertise.”—Sam Kennerley, Reviews in History

Reviews in History - Sam Kennerley

Monumental”—Charlotte Methuen, TLS

TLS - Charlotte Methuen

Fascinating reading. The author is a gifted writer who particularly excels at the ability to expound theological ideas. If you read only one book about the Reformation in the year of its 500th anniversary, this is probably the one to choose.”—Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper

Church of England Newspaper - Paul Richardson

Magnificent”—Mark Noll, Books and Culture

Books and Culture - Mark Noll

This is a huge book but don’t be put off by its size. It more than lives up to Eire’s promise in his preface of being an introduction and survey for beginners and non-specialists… Eire’s prose is transparent, elegant and witty, his narrative enlivened by sparkling insights and one-liners.”—Anne Dillon, The Tablet

The Tablet - Anne Dillon

A remarkable achievement. [Eire] takes immense pains to give an even-handed account of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations… This massive and remarkable book presents convincing evidence.”—Anthony Kenny, Literary Review

Literary Review - Anthony Kenny

Any serious study of the Reformation’s origins and impact requires a willingness to traverse a veritable minefield of longstanding theological and historiographical arguments . . . Eire does that and more. [Reformations] is likely to become one of the definitive studies of this period.”—Samuel Gregg, Library of Law and Liberty

Library of Law and Liberty - Samuel Gregg

Beguiling . . . Though Eire lays out his argument quite clearly, this is not a thesis-driven book. Rather, it is a detail-rich crosscutting narrative . . . you will learn a great deal and be entertained along the way.”—John Wilson, National Review

National Review - John Wilson

Among the greatest merits of Eire’s survey are its remarkable clar¬ity in expounding difficult theological ideas and complex political changes, its calm comprehensiveness, and its sober judgments, expressed with an unemphatic evenhandedness. . . . Eire’s majes¬tically comprehensive survey leaves no doubt about the enduring consequences, for good and ill, of the re¬ligious upheavals of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries.”—Eamon Duffy, First Things

First Things - Eamon Duffy

Eire’s vast learning is on display throughout this enormous (and handsomely illustrated) work.”—Michael Massing, New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review - Michael Massing

Carlos Eire contributes to our understanding of the Reformations as Europe-wide phenomena, highlights the diversity of Protestantism, and shows how vibrant Catholic reform could be.”—Kathryn A. Edwards, University of South Carolina

Kathryn A. Edwards

An ambitious and highly successful project. Wonderfully balanced and nicely nuanced, the book is a genuine tour de force in bringing together the various elements of the Reformations, from their meaning for the educated and sophisticated proponents (and opponents) to their reception (or rejection) by the mass of ordinary and unlettered persons who ‘lived’ amid the swirl of religious change.”—Raymond Mentzer, University of Iowa

Raymond Mentzer

Carlos Eire’s Reformations is a work of remarkable scope and ambition, a magnificent sweep through four centuries, and as many continents, tracing in original and perceptive ways the unforeseeable consequences—in religion, politics, culture, science—of the convulsions that started in western Christianity at the close of the Middle Ages. Eire writes with insight and empathy about the values and visions of a fervent and often violent age. He does not shield us from the strangeness and complexity of the past, but we come away with a much enhanced understanding of the lines connecting it to our present.”—Peter Marshall, University of Warwick

Peter Marshall

It takes an unusually perceptive, judicious, knowledgeable, and yes brave person to write a book this big and sweeping, given all the ink spelled and trees felled and terabytes devoted to the Reformation, and Carlos Eire is all of those. It is beautifully structured, gracefully written, evenhanded in its treatment of Catholic, Protestant, and Radical movements, and most importantly equally at home in the Reformation and the present. Read this and you will understand both worlds better.”—Craig Harline, Author of Conversions: Two Family Stories from the Reformation and Modern America

Craig Harline

Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650

Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650

Paperback(Reprint)

Paperback(Reprint)

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

Interviews

Customer Reviews

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

Interviews

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews