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The Two Reformations: The Journey from the Last Days to the New World

Online ISBN:
9780300130348
Print ISBN:
9780300098686
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Book

The Two Reformations: The Journey from the Last Days to the New World

Heiko A. Oberman,
Heiko A. Oberman
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Donald Weinstein (ed.)
Donald Weinstein
(ed.)
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Published:
10 June 2003
Online ISBN:
9780300130348
Print ISBN:
9780300098686
Publisher:
Yale University Press

Abstract

This book seeks to liberate and broaden our understanding of the European Reformation, from its origins in medieval philosophy and theology through the Puritan settlers who brought Calvin's vision to the New World. Ranging over many topics, it finds connections between aspects of the Reformation and twentieth-century history and thought—most notably the connection to Nazism and the Holocaust. The book revisits earlier work on the history of anti-Semitism, rejects the notion of an unbroken line from Luther to Hitler to the Holocaust, and offers a new perspective on the Christian legacy of anti-Semitism and its murderous result in the twentieth century. The book demonstrates how the simplifications and rigidities of modern historiography have obscured the existential spirits of such great figures as Luther and Calvin. The book explores the debt of both Luther and Calvin to medieval religious thought and the impact of diverse features of “the long fifteenth century”—including the Black Death, nominalism, humanism, and the Conciliar Movement—on the Reformation.

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