A Reformation Reader [With CDROM]

This is a required text for my seminary class. I find it a helpful collection of writings that saves time in the library from hunting all of the individual primary sources. The translations seem readable and the selections allow a better knowledge of the subject than text books about the subject. Choices are always made in any edited work, but the choices seem to have been well made to promote understanding of the changes to the the church in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Denis Janz's compilation of relevant primary texts for the Reformation is a great place to begin serious study on Reformation theology. Janz begins with several texts from the medieval period that help one understand the Catholic theology being "protested" in later years. Also interesting are the "precursors" to the Reformation found in men like Bradwardine, people who were rediscovering Augustinian theology, though maintaining their Catholic beliefs. Janz selects texts from Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, the Anabaptists, Roman Catholic apologists, and the major confessions of faith and Reformed catechisms.

This collection of readings focusing upon the sixteenth century Reformations in Europe is a wonderful collection for students, seminarians, pastors and interested laypersons who want to read the actual source documents (or good translations of such) rather than narrative histories and opinions about the key ideas and documents that helped shape the early years of the Protestant Reformations. As David Janz, Professor of Religious Studies at Loyola (New Orleans), states, this collection is `heavily theological' - while it is true that the history of the Reformation period cannot adequately be recounted without attention to political, economic and social realms, the larger influence in the Reformations was theological/religious differences, a subject that is more difficult to approach in today's secular academic world. The leaders of all sides in this period either saw themselves as theologians or working on behalf of theological ideas; thus, it is important to understand the key issues involved from a theological standpoint. This being said, it is also important to know not just what the various Reformers said and wrote, but also what they were reacting against; Janz includes many pieces all sides. In the introduction, Janz cautions against the biases of seeing the Reformation as a whole as a good thing or a bad thing, and introduces use of the term `Reformations' to address the diversity of movements that often get lumped together under the historical categorical shorthand of `Reformation'. Janz has six broad categories for dividing the documents in this text: I - Late Medieval Background; II - Martin Luther; III - Ulrich Zwingli and the radical reformers; IV - John Calvin; V - English Reformation; and VI - Counter/Catholic Reformation. The inclusion of the first section makes this volume particularly valuable, as many Reformation histories and readers being with Martin Luther, assuming knowledge of the background that is often insufficient. In fact, as Janz points out, there is no one, single, monolithic `Catholic' theology against which the Reformers worked - there was a pluralistic setting which included Nominalists, Augustinians, Thomists, Humanists, and more, all operating in varying degrees of comfort within the official church structure. Janz selects readings that address popular piety and spirituality, ecclesial structures and practices, theological and biblical issues, and critical thinking of the time (the later in the form of Erasmus). The section on Luther begins with excerpts from autobiographical writings, including correspondence and `Table Talk'. The theological writings include works on biblical topics, catechetical work, sermons and essays, and the full text of the Ninety-Five Theses. Rounding out this section, Janz includes a few key Lutheran pieces, such as the Augsburg Confession, along with Melanchthon's Apology, and the Formula of Concord, all key pieces in the development of mainline Lutheranism. The sect