Table of Contents
Introduction: Why the Reformation Matters 1
A Hard Life 2
Religion as More-than-Religion 4
An Inherited Christian Worldview 6
From Then to Now: A First Glance 8
Where We Are Going in This Book 13
1 A Reluctant Rebel 15
A Busy and Burdened Friar 15
Augustinian Duties 17
Getting to a New University in a Small Town 20
God's Word, Humanist Scholarship, and Christian Reform 23
Wittenberg's Thriving Christian Piety 27
Sins, Reform, and the Importance of Confession 30
Luther's Struggles Beneath the Surface 33
The Wider Stage: The Holy Roman Empire 35
Going Public with Ninety-Five These 39
Unexpected Fame 46
Making Political Waves 51
A Sheltered Meeting in Augsburg 54
A Public Showdown in Leipzig 59
A Clarifying Anger 66
Liberation and Denunciation 71
A Double Severance Package 82
2 A Fractious Movement 87
Karlstadt's Wittenberg 90
Zwingli's Zürich 97
Reformation as Urban Disruption 103
Reformation as Revolution: The German Peasants' War 110
The Gospel Against the World: Anabaptists 116
For and Against Free Will 122
Broken over the Bread: The Eucharistic Controversy 128
Münster: An Apocalyptic Anabaptist Kingdom 133
Brave-and Troubled-New World 137
3 A Troubled Era 143
Lutheranism Beyond Luther 146
Calvin, Geneva, and Reformed Protestantism 152
The Radical Reformation After Münster 160
Roman Catholicism Renewed 166
War to War in the Holy Roman Empire 175
France and the Wars of More-than-Religion 182
England, Kingdom of Religious Division 190
Violence, Revolt, and Breakup in the Low Countries 200
Religion as More-than-Religion: Creativity, Conflicts, and Impasses 208
4 A New World 213
Going Dutch: Restricting Religion and Unleashing Commerce 220
Enlightenment, Enrichment, and a New Empire 229
Founding Secularization: Religious Freedom in the United States 235
Suspending Secularization: Tocqueville on Religion in America 243
Advancing Secularization: The United States and Europe 250
Separated and Diminished Religion, Secularized and Divided Society 255
Free at Last? 263
Acknowledgments 271
Notes 273