Sixteenth-century Augsburg comes to life in this beautifully chosen and elegantly translated selection of original documents. Ranging across the whole panoply of social activity from the legislative reformation to work, recreation, and family life, these extracts make plain the subtle system of checks and balances, violence, and self-regulation that brought order and vibrancy to a sophisticated city community. Most of all we hear sixteenth-century people speak: in their petitions and complaints, their nervous responses under interrogation, their rage and laughter. Tlusty has done an invaluable service in crafting a collection that should be an indispensable part of the teaching syllabus. --Andrew Pettegree, University of St. Andrews

In 1530, Holy Roman emperor Charles V called an imperial council in Augsburg, hoping to resolve religious dissention in the empire introduced by Martin Luther, whose 95 Theses, criticized the church's practice of offering promises of forgiveness from sins in exchange for money. Luther's allies in the town of Wittenberg presented the emperor with their theological positions. Another faction, aligned with Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli, offered more radical reforms. The Roman church responded with a defense of traditional doctrines, but by then, hope of a simple resolution to religious concerns had faded. By the time the council ended, local authorities in Augsburg recognized that its neutral, "middle way" position could not continue. The city would have to choose a side in the ongoing Reformation. In the game, students acting as members of the 1530 City Council of Augsburg must balance competing demands for reform from citizens who espouse the religious conservatism of Charles V, while considering the implications of various Reformation positions for the city's military defense, economic growth, and spiritual purity. Students will have to choose whether to align with the Zwingli or the Wittenberg faction, uphold the traditions of the church in Rome, or create a unique approach to religious practices.

A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Augsburg distills the extraordinary range and creativity of recent scholarship on one of the most significant cities of the Holy Roman Empire into a handbook format.

Debate over the usefulness of the confessionalization thesis, as a way of understanding the Reformation's impact on later Sixteenth-Century Europe, has distracted attention from the experiences of people in the early years of reform. Based on interrogations recorded in Augshurg, Germany, in the first half of the sixteenth century, the compelling portraits of individual believers presented in this book provide a rare insight into the lives of ordinary people during one of the most controversial periods in religious history. Speaking about their faith and encounters with others in their own words, they rephrase the debate in terms of contemporary experiences. The resulting study challenges previous assumptions about the importance of belief in constructing religious identities and reveals the potential for accommodation amidst conflict.

Edited by Emery de Gaál and Matthew Levering, Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of Reformation-Era Divisions examines Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI’s manifold contributions to Catholic-Protestant theological reflection. The collection opens with an introduction comparing Ratzinger’s approach to ecumenism to that of Karl Rahner. Rahner argues that the structural uniting of Protestants and Catholics should take place now without worrying about doctrinal differences. In contrast, Ratzinger argues that unity in Christ requires probing the doctrinal differences and seeking a deeper understanding of the reasoning of each side—on the grounds that the truth of the Gospel that each side desires to preserve will ultimately be the basis for the only kind of Christian ecclesial unity worth having, namely, a unity of the basis of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Detailed essays follow, treating a number of loci including papal primacy, ecumenical principles, liturgy, evangelization, Mariology, Christ’s birth and the celebration of Christmas, public theology, Christocentrism, Martin Luther, charity, conscience, missiology, justification, the reception of Ratzinger/Benedict in Radical Orthodoxy, and Scripture and Tradition. These essays run the full gamut of Ratzinger/Benedict’s major themes and preoccupations. Ten of the essays are by Catholic scholars, and seven by Protestant scholars. Contributors include many of the world’s leading Ratzinger experts, and the volume opens with an essay by Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, Director of the Pope Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany.

This volume studies Reformation-Era theology by comparing how various denominations formulated and treated topics, thus encouraging ecumenical dialogue. It will remain the definitive place for teachers and students of theology to begin any further study into the origins and formulation of their denomination's teachings during this period.

These essays add a unique perspective to studies that reconstruct the identity of manhood in early modern Europe, including France, Switzerland, Spain, and Germany. The authors examine the ways in which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century authorities, both secular and religious, labored to turn boys and men into the Christian males they desired. Topics include disparities among gender paradigms that early modern models prescribed and the tension between the patriarchal model and the civic duties that men were expected to fulfill. Essays about Martin Luther, a prolific self-witness, look into the marriage relationship with its expected and actual gender roles. Contributors to this volume are Scott H. Hendrix, Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Raymond A. Mentzer, Allyson M. Poska, Helmut Puff, Karen E. Spierling, Ulrike Strasser, B. Ann Tlusty, and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks.

Although religious unrest had been brewing in Western Europe long before Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, historians view this event as the tipping point that shattered the unity of the Medieval Catholic civilization. Disillusioned by Church bureaucracy and awakened by the rise of Renaissance Humanism, Western Europe was primed for an alternative to the old order. Protestant reformers called for a return to scripture and a focus on individual faith, and the Catholic Church responded with a new focus on spirituality that culminated in the Council of Trent. In modern spiritual revivals, religious debates, and newer Church reforms, we can still see the legacy of the era Linder calls Midwife to the Modern World.

This fascinating collection of primary source documents furnishes the accounts—in their own words—of those who initiated, advanced, or lived through the Reformation. Starting in 1500, Europe transformed from a united Christendom into a continent bitterly divided between Catholicism and Protestantism by the end of the century. This illuminating text reveals what happened during that period by presenting the social, religious, economic, political, and cultural life of the European Reformation of the 16th century in the words of those who lived through it. Detailed and comprehensive, the work includes 60 primary source documents that shed light on the character, personalities, and events of that time and provides context, questions, and activities for successfully incorporating these documents into academic research and reading projects. A special section provides guidelines for better evaluating and understanding primary documents. Topics include late medieval religion, Martin Luther, reformation in Germany and the Peasants' War, the rise of Calvinism, and the English Reformation.

Nine essays explore the role of women in religious controversy and its effect on them, drawing primarily on writing by women. Spans Europe and the years 1500-1700. Topics include the religious politics of the nobility and royalty, charity organizations, family life, and such religious asylums as convents. Paper edition is available ($10.95; 20527-1). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR