The Reformation: one of the greatest ruptures in European history, a rupture that permanently split the church, triggered wars, created new city-states, and even led, in the opinion of many experts, to the Enlightenment, Science, and the secularization of the West.
It’s such a big deal we’re going to take two whole episodes to examine it—and still, only scratch the surface.
How did one man go from a pious local friar in an obscure backwater town to the leader of a global movement that ripped Christianity in two (and then three, then four, and ultimately thousands of Protestant denominations!).
And what is the real legacy of this thing we call The Reformation?
Meet our guests
Matthew Barrett is Associate Professor of Christian Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books including Reformation Theology and his latest book Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, which is published by our sponsor Zondervan Academic.
Matthew is also the host of the Credo Podcast, where he interviews some fantastic theologians.
Rev. Dr Jennifer Powell McNutt is an associate professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College (alongside John!) She is a world authority on The Reformation and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation, as well as a series of essays called The People’s Book: The Reformation and the Bible.
Links
This season of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic. Get discounts on MasterLectures video courses and exclusive samples of their books at zondervanacademic.com/undeceptions
Check out these helpful links below for more info on what was discussed in this episode
To Watch
- The wildly popular YouTube channel CrashCourse has produced an excellent video that takes you through the complete Reformation in just 15 minutes
- Check out this clip from the 2003 feature-length Luther, which does a wonderful job of capturing the many moving parts at work in the lead-up to the Reformation
- Our guest Jennifer McNutt has spoken at length in the public domain about The Reformation. Check out one of her lectures on the topic here
- This fabulous (and cute) video does a great job of unpacking daily life in Luther’s time
- You could do much worse than watching Ryan Reeves’ (Cambridge Scholar) YouTube channel on church history, including all manner of episodes on The Reformation. Check it out here
To Read
- Check out Luther’s 95 Theses here – a piece of writing that changed the world
- This piece by The Atlantic to mark 500 years since Luther’s revolution helps unpack the complexity of the Reformation
- New Advent has this helpful explainer of the Fourth Lateran Council
- This excellent explainer from The New Yorker explains how Luther’s work has reverberated through the centuries
- Not all protestants have had beef with Thomas Aquinas. Credo Magazine has this excellent article describing why
- World History Encyclopedia has put together a helpful explainer outlining The Diet of Worms, and all the other debates and councils Luther attended at the start of The Reformation
- Finally, don’t forget to pre-order Matthew Barrett’s Reformation as Renewal, released on June 6. Order your copy here
To Listen
- Check out Matthew Barrett’s Credo podcast here
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