Courses

HIS 359LEC Reformation

This course explores the causes and development of the division of western Christianity into Protestant and Catholic communities. Following a general survey of social and religious tensions in the late Middle Ages, attention will be given to the contexts and political trends in fifteenth century Europe leading to the so-called "magisterial Reformation" under Luther and Calvin. The religious ideologies of the reformers will be examined against the background of Renaissance culture and developing ideas of the nation-state, the rediscovery and transformation of classical learning, the development of literary and historical criticism, the growth of populism and the power of the laity in the Radical Reformation, and the beginnings of anti-Trinitarian ideas among the Socinians. Some attention will be given to the conciliar and theological efforts to reform the Catholic Church, and to the dispersion of Reformation political ideals and theology to the New World, with special reference to New England. PRE. EUR