Five Hundred Years On

October 2017 marked the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 theses and the traditional beginning of the Reformation. Celebrations and memorials took place around the world, including hundreds in Germany alone. Fortunately, two excellent volumes are part of the commemorations. The first, Protestantism after 500 Years, is a collection of essays edited by Thomas Albert Howard and Mark A. Noll. As the title implies, the book is a look at Protestantism's impact historically, as well as its influence and meaning today. The second, Alec Ryrie's Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World, is an ambitious synthesis of the ways Protestants have shaped the world. The two pair well, as they both take an approach that is inclusive of all Protestants in their assessments, which helps emphasize the global impact of the Reformation across time.

Howard and Noll's volume comprises fourteen chapters, and seeks to "expand and enrich an ongoing conversation about the significance of the Reformation" by incorporating a broad range of subjects (p. 8). They have gathered an impressive collection of scholars to explore the interplay of Protestantism and law, science, education, empire, theology and the modern world. Fortunately, the book largely succeeds, and each chapter is strong.

In the first chapter, Thomas Albert Howard offers a history of the ways Luther has been celebrated over several centuries. Not surprisingly, the memory of Luther has changed in response to the social and political climate. In 1817, Luther was an agent "advancing the human story away from superstition and darkness … toward reason and light" (p. 33). Coming shortly after the creation of the unified German nation, the 1883 celebration of Luther's birth presented a hero, a "liberator of the 'Teutonic mind' from Rome" (p. 42). This chapter would be especially useful for students, who often struggle with the notion that historical narratives can change, and who believe there should be one "truth" in history.

Four chapters primarily discuss historiography. Carlos Eire takes on Max Weber's assertion that Protestants had caused "the disenchantment of the world," agreeing in principle that the Reformation changed Christians' outlook, and arguing that there were two key means to doing so (p. 75). He writes that Protestant thinking placed a barrier between "spirit and matter," by asserting that one accesses God not through physical ritual, but through the spirit. Protestantism also separated the mystical and supernatural from the visible natural world. In an effort to step away from a narrative of liberal progress, modern historiography has focused on the many ways Luther, Calvin and other reformers were medieval in their thinking. Yet, Eire contends, they did represent change when compared to the supernatural world of Catholicism. He recounts the examples of the Catholic Saint Joseph of Cupertino and the Venerable Maria de Agreda, also called the Lady in Blue, to convincingly demonstrate just how revolutionary Protestant thinking was. Cupertino was said to levitate, and Agreda could bilocate, ministering in Spain and North America at the same time. Protestant reformers rejected these as violations of natural law.

Brad S. Gregory takes on the historiography of linking the Reformation and modernity in a concise summary of his book, The Unintended Reformation (2012). His work seeks to harmonize two threads of thought. The first he calls the Liberal-Progressive view, which positions Luther and the reformers as initiators of a march toward the modern world (p. 143). The second, the "Revisionist-Confessionalization Narrative," stands as a corrective to the notion of a progressive break with the past, and emphasizes continuities with medieval Europe (p. 145). Gregory proposes a third way: the Reformation created a series of factions, including a number of radical ones. The warring between radical sects resulted in the separation of the state from ecclesiastical affairs as a mechanism to keep peace and good order. This, he argues, led to the...