The book begins with a rather narrow focus, exploring Luther’s inner religious struggles and what happened when he acted on them.

He thinks many of the long-term outcomes of the Reformation would have surprised and even dismayed the Reformers themselves (1-2). Gregory argues that this legacy was also for the most part unintended. In Rebel in the Ranks, University of Notre Dame professor Brad S. To say the least, the legacy of the Reformation era that we’ve inherited is a complicated one. Whether or not he actually pinned them to a church door in Wittenberg or just sent them to Archbishop Albrecht, the ensuing movement of reform and protest against aspects of Roman Catholic practices and beliefs that began with him ultimately shook the foundations of the Western church and led to both religious renewal-for both Protestants and Catholics-and sadly also centuries of strife, division, and bloodshed. It’s now been five hundred years since Martin Luther sparked off the Protestant Reformation with the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses. Ultimately, he contends, some of the major historical and cultural developments that arose in its wake - including the Enlightenment, individual self-determination and moral relativism, and a religious freedom that protects one's right to worship or even to reject religion - would have appalled Luther: a reluctant revolutionary, a rebel in the ranks, whose goal was to make society more Christian, yet instead set the world on fire.Tracing the Reformation’sĪ Review of Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our Worldīuy Now: Amazon ] Kindle ]

He reveals how Luther's insistence on the Bible as the sole authority for Christian truth led to conflicting interpretations of its meaning - and to the rise of competing churches, political conflicts, and social upheavals. Gregory analyzes Luther's inadvertent role in starting the Reformation and the epochal changes that followed. Yet his actions would profoundly shape our world in ways he could never have imagined. Luther did not intend to start a revolution that would divide the Catholic Church and forever change Western civilization. In Rebel in the Ranks, Brad Gregory, renowned professor of European history at Notre Dame, recasts this long-accepted portrait. On the 500th anniversary of the Reformation comes this compelling, illuminating, and expansive religious history that examines the complicated and unintended legacies of Martin Luther and the epochal movement that continues to shape the world today.įor five centuries Martin Luther has been lionized as an outspoken and fearless icon of change who ended the Middle Ages and heralded the beginning of the modern world.

Rebel in the ranks by brad s gregory