Details

<i>List of Abbreviations</i> vi <p>1 Introduction 1</p> <p>2 Defining the Reformation 8</p> <p>3 Religious Life 34</p> <p>4 The Anatomy of Reform 71</p> <p>5 Reformation Politics 103</p> <p>6 The Social Dynamics 130</p> <p>7 Confessional Cultures 163</p> <p>Appendix: Did Luther Post the <i>Ninety-Five Theses</i> ? 205</p> <p><i>Further Reading</i> 208</p> <p><i>Index</i> 220</p>

<p>”If you need to rid yourself of this idea, a good place to start would be to read this book”.  (<i>Journal Religious History</i>, 20 June 2014)</p> <p>“I have no doubt that it will find a well-deserved place on the reading lists of many an undergraduate introduction to the Reformation.  I will certainly be including it in mine.”  (<i>Journal of Ecclesiastical History</i>, 1 April 2013)</p> <p>“Overall, an excellent book.  Summing Up: Recommended.  Upper-level undergraduates and above.”  (<i>Choice</i>, 1 October 2012)</p> <p><i>Reviewed in Times Higher Educational Supplement</i> – 5 July 2012</p> <p>“This book is an invaluable resource – both a reference for students and a quick crib for teachers caught short by reading-list deadlines.”  (<i>Times Higher Education Supplement</i>, 5 July 2012)</p>

<p><b>C. Scott Dixon</b> is Senior Lecturer at Queen's University, Belfast. He is the author of numerous books and articles on early modern religious history, including <i>The Reformation and Rural Society</i> (1996), <i>The Reformation in Germany</i> (2002), and <i>Protestants: a History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania, 1517-1740</i> (2010).</p>

<p>In recent years the literature on the Reformation has grown not only in quantity but in complexity as well. Historiographical trends have waxed and waned, knowledge has mounted and become ever more specialist, and new methods, technologies, and preoccupations have transformed our perspective of the past and raised issues that had not occurred to former generations.</p> <p><i>Contesting the Reformation</i> offers an illuminating synthesis and reassessment of recent trends by providing a comprehensive survey of the most influential theories in the field from a comparative, cross-national, interdisciplinary perspective. Included in the book are such issues as the conceptualization of the Reformation in terms of its timeframe and its historical context, the nature of the religious culture that gave rise to the movement, and the relationship between religious reform and political ideas. Other topics include the effect of the Reformation on the social relations of the age, the intellectual legacy of Protestant reform, and the extent to which religious change impacted the lives and beliefs of early modern parishioners. The book concludes with a discussion about the relationship between the Reformation and the modern age. <i>Contesting the Reformation</i> provides a thought-provoking and balanced survey of the debates that have shaped, and continue to shape, the field.</p>

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