The Great Reformation - A Wide-ranging Survey of the Beginnings of Protestantism

The Great Reformation:
a wide-ranging survey of the beginnings of Protestantism
By R. Tudur Jones
Bryntirion Press. 288 pages.
ISBN 1 85049 127 5

As evangelicals, there are few periods of history to which we look back with more theological nostalgia than that of the Reformation. Yet it is also true that many in our churches today have little more than a rudimentary knowledge of its history, personalities and doctrines.
Such ignorance has highly significant implications for an era when the future direction of the evangelical church, facing the challenge of the 'Evangelicals and Catholics Together' movement, will be largely determined by our understanding of the past and its relationship to today. At its most basic, the question to be asked is: 'Do the debates which took place between Protestants and Catholics at the Reformation still have some significance for today?'. The answer is not as easy as many on both sides of the current debate have sought to make it. If the church at large is to come to an informed view, it must first do its homework in the field of Reformation studies.
Basic to any correct understanding of the significance of the Reformation must be a solid grasp of the personalities and events. In today's high pressure society, few outside of the ranks of ministers and professional theologians have much time to read large numbers of books on any given topic, so it is important to be selective and to make sure that the books one reads are sure-footed and well-written guides. Tudur Jones's The Great Reformation is one such work. First published by IVP in the 1980s, it is now available in an attractive format from Bryntirion Press. In 38 brief chapters, the reader is taken from the problems in late medieval Catholicism and the protests of Wycliffe and Hus, through the Lutheran and Swiss Reformations, right up to the Counter-Reformation. In the intervening chapters there are also useful sections on the Reformation in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Wales, Ireland, England, Scotland and Italy. So much information in such a small, readable and reliable volume makes this book a remarkable achievement! Professor Jones is not only a sound guide to the basic shape of the Reformation and to the various theological strands of the differing movements, but is also fair and judicious in his evaluation, avoiding the sharp tone of polemic that runs through too many popular volumes on this topic. The book is therefore extraordinarily useful as a basic primer text.
Tudur Jones is a respected scholar and teacher, so the reader can be confident that the book is written by one highly competent for the task.

Dr. Carl R. Trueman
Department of Theology,
University of Nottingham

The Great Reformation - A Wide-ranging Survey of the Beginnings of Protestantism

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