The Reformation
Towards a New History

Lee Palmer Wandel interweaves narratives of the Reformation and the encounter between Europe and the Western hemisphere.

Lee Palmer Wandel (Author)

9780521889490, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 August 2011

284 pages, 33 b/w illus. 4 maps
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.57 kg

"...Wandel's work offers a perceptive analysis of the effects and consequences of the Reformation's breakup of western European Christendom." -Karin Maag, H-HRE

This book recasts the story of the Reformation by bringing together two histories: the Encounter between Europe and the western hemisphere beginning in 1492; and the fragmentation of European Christendom in the sixteenth century. In so doing, it restores resonance to 'idolatry', 'cannibal', 'barbarian', even as it moves past such polemics to trace multiple understandings of divinity, matter and human nature. So many aspects of human life, from marriage and family through politics to ways of thinking about space and time, were called into question. Debates on human nature and conversion forged new understandings of religious identity. Debates on the relationship of humanity to the material world forged new understandings of image and ritual, new understandings of physics. By the end of the century, there was not one 'Christian religion', but many, and many understandings of the Christian in the world.

Introduction
Part I. Beginnings: 1. Christianity in 1500
2. 'The New World'
3. 'The World'
Part II. Fragmentation: 4. The word of God and the ordering of the world
5. The ties that bind
6. Boundaries
Part III. Religion Reconceived: 7. Christians
8. Things and places
9. Incarnation
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB], History of religion [HRAX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]