Title: Reformation Christianity. Reformation Christianity xvi,306 p. Publisher: Minneapolis : Fortress, 2007. Series: A people\u27s history of Christianity ; 5

Cole-Arnal, Oscar

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 32Issue 1 Cultural Reception of the Gospel Article 185-1-2007Reformation ChristianityOscar Cole-ArnalFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationCole-Arnal, Oscar (2007) "Reformation Christianity," Consensus: Vol. 32 : Iss. 1 , Article 18.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol32/iss1/18Reformation History: A People’s History of Christianity, Vol. 5Peter Matheson, ed.Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006xviii + 306 pages, $40.75 HardcoverWhen I took Church History in my seminary back in the 1960s welearned about the great thinkers (all men) and delved extensively intotheir theology. In short, church history was about “talking heads,” adisembodied abstracted set of ideas, all measured against the best ofthe best, Martin Luther. Women did not exist, and if there was anysense of the grass-roots, either they sat in awe converted by thetheology of the geniuses we studied or they were a mindless mobready to take up with the first demagogue who showed up. Think thePeasants’ War and Thomas Müntzer for the standard example. Evenwhen I began to teach the subject at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in1975 I used that model more than I care to admit. In a seminary of allbut two men women continued to remain absent in my courses,although I strove mightily to bring more radical mass movements ofreform into the picture. This brief personal reminiscence serves to underscore how thediscipline desperately needed a social, economic, political and grass-roots approach to the events which shaped and defined the growth ofmovements that followed the carpenter of Nazareth. Indeed, over thethree decades of my teaching work after work has appearedcorrecting this horrendous vacuum. We have witnessed an explosionof books on women within the Christian tradition as well as anextensive number of social and economic histories. Now, at the endof my professorial career I and others are the joyful recipient ofstudies that give us an infinitely satisfying holistic picture of the twothousand year march of Christianity.Into this context has appeared a monumental project by FortressPress in Minneapolis, Minnesota, namely the seven-volume APeople’s History of Christianity, which concentrates its collectedstudies at the level of where and how the general populace lived itsfaith. Each volume is edited by a noted scholar in the field andincludes chapters on selected themes by other experts from a varietyof faith traditions. The editor of Volume 5, Reformation Christianity,is Peter Matheson, the renowned academic of the Reformation’s massmedia of woodcuts, broadsheets and pamphlets designed for popularBook Reviews 151Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2007consumption. Of course, a work of this nature with its numerousauthors runs the danger of uneven quality. In this particular volume,I believe that the chapters are not entirely equal in quality, nor, asmight be expected, are they of equal interest to this reviewer.Nonetheless, they are all of high standard and worth the read. Thesecond section “From Cradle to Grave” brought forth immediateyawns; must I go through this? What do I care how ordinary folkdealt with birth, with baptism, with death? Upon reading, however, Iwas caught up short. By the time I got into these chapters I wastasting the stresses and strains of daily life and piety, the pains, thejoys, the fears, the day-to-day belief systems and rituals often lost bythose in the ivory towers of academia – Luther, Calvin and yourstruly included. In these chapters I walked with people through therich layers of their daily existence. Part I deals with how piety old and new reached into both urbanand rural centres, and throughout all three sections I was struck to myvery being and reminded viscerally how women navigated to findplace and how they insisted they be heard in a ruthless patriarchalsociety. Part III, “Finding Their Voices” proved to be my favouritepart, precisely because of the general topic of radical social change inthe name of the Reformation Gospel. That theme has been near anddear to my heart for almost forty years. Personally, this volume wasa real prize because it gave me what I wanted (Part III), it gave memore of what I expected (Part I) and it took me by surprise and ledme forward in knowledge and empathy (Part II). If you want toexperience history from the ground, buy this book; indeed, buy themall. Yes, I know they are more expensive than the real “grass-roots”can afford, but we all live in some contradiction.Oscar Cole-ArnalWaterloo Lutheran Seminary,Waterloo, Ontario152 Consensushttp://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol32/iss1/18

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