1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation

Description

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 is one of the most famous events of Western history. It inaugurated the Protestant Reformation, and has for centuries been a powerful and enduring symbol of religious freedom of conscience, and of righteous protest against the abuse of power. But did it actually really happen? In this engagingly-written, wide-ranging and insightful work of cultural history, leading Reformation historian Peter Marshall reviews the available evidence, and concludes that, very probably, it did not. The theses-posting is a myth. And yet, Marshall argues, this fact makes the incident all the more historically significant. In tracing how - and why - a 'non-event' ended up becoming a defining episode of the modern historical imagination. Marshall compellingly explores the multiple ways in which the figure of Martin Luther, and the nature of the Reformation itself, have been remembered and used for their own purposes by subsequent generations of Protestants and others - in Germany, Britain, the United States and elsewhere. As people in Europe, and across the world, prepare to remember, and celebrate, the 500th anniversary of Luther's posting of the theses, this book offers a timely contribution and corrective. The intention is not to 'debunk', or to belittle Luther's achievement, but rather to invite renewed reflection on how the past speaks to the present - and on how, all too often, the present creates the past in its own image and likeness.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation

  • 2017-08-04
  • 278 pages
  • Ebook
  • Oxford University Press
• 

  1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation

  • 2017
  • 243 pages
  • Paperback
  • Oxford University Press

Similar books

• 

  History of the British Standing Army.

  By Clifford Walton

  Clerk (or) Clark, Esqre.," held the appointment ; he was son to Sir Wm. Clarke, :1 sort of Secretary-at-War, and does not appear to have been bred up to the law. In Ireland the post was held from 1635 to 1637 by W. Clerke, J.C.B., E.

• 

  Running as a Woman: Gender and Power in American Politics

  By Karen M. Paget, Linda Witt, Glenna Matthews

  ... and, judging by the strange new media venues, "Saturday Night Live," "Donahue," and gossip columnist Lany King's radio and television call-in shows on which 1992's Losing 245.

• 

  Populist Nationalism: Republican Insurgency and American Foreign Policy Making, 1918-1925

  By Karen A. J. Miller

  His stature within the party leadership would suffer a significant blow at the Cleveland convention . Although both Lodge and Coolidge came from Massachusetts , they represented very different elements in their state's Republican party ...

• 

  你一定爱读的极简世界史

  By , 李菲

  (英)玛丽奥特, 李菲. 疆域达到了最大,罗德岛、塞浦路斯和安纳托利亚西南岸上都是他们的地盘。迈锡尼人还将克里特文字变成了一种希腊文,翻译过来的文字显示,迈锡尼人也信仰一些古典希腊的神灵,如海神波塞冬、太阳神阿波罗和主神宙斯。

• 

  原始富足

  By 詹姆斯．舒茲曼

  ★ 《人類大歷史》作者哈拉瑞盛讚：「深具啟發、精彩好看！」 ★ 2017年《華盛頓郵報》最佳非虛構類寫作圖書 ★ 2017年美國國家公共廣播平台（NPR）年度好書 ...

• 

  The American Journey: A History of the United States

  By David R. Goldfield, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, William L. Barney

  Anna J. Cooper , A Voice from the South , 1892 Anna Julia Cooper , A Voice from the South ( Xenia , Ohio : The Aldine Printing House , 1892 ) : 134-135 , 138–140 , 142–145 . The book may be accessed from the Internet ...

• 

  A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth. Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to...

  By Frank Hamilton Cushing

  This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide.

• 

  The Winning of the West

  By Theodore Roosevelt

  ... inhabitants are greatly Exposd . to the Saviges by whome our wives and Childring are daly Cruily murdered Notwithstanding our most Humble Petitions Canot Obtain Redress- By an other act we are Taxd . which in our 398 APPENDICES .

• 

  History of American Abolitionism; Its Four Great Epochs, Embracing Narratives of the Ordinance of 1787, Compromise of 1820, Annexation of...

  By F. G. 1832-1896 De Fontaine

  This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

• 

  The African-American Odyssey: To 1877

  By Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, Stanley Harrold

  Supreme Court Justices ( continued ) Name * Years on Court Appointing President John Marshall Harlan William J. Brennan , Jr. Charles E. Whittaker Potter Stewart Byron R. White Arthur J. Goldberg Abe Fortas Thurgood Marshall WARREN E.