Book Review: The Reformation

I’ve always been a reader.

In my elementary years, I was caught more than one time by my parents reading in bed by the light of a nearby security light that would provide just-barely adequate reading light if I held my book and the window blind just so.

At dinner time I would invariably tote a book to the table with me — while Mom and Dad would continue a lengthy discussion after the meal, I would break open the current favorite book and immerse myself in a tale — usually some heart-stopping adventure with the Hardy siblings and friends, or some enthralling sports story (either fact or fiction).

I’ve read many magazines, expanded my novel repertoire, and even majored in literature in college (joint major with print journalism).  But get me to read a history book?  Not likely.

My tendency away from history wasn’t helped in seminary when a combination of an unexcited professor and a dry-as-dust history text left my ill- and pre-conceived notions well in place.

Then a number of years ago I began reading some original sources.  I was introduced to the Puritans through the gift of a small paperback by Thomas Watson.  Then I continued my trek through other Puritans:  Burroughs, Flavel, Edwards, Brooks, and the like.  “This isn’t so bad…”  So I added in an occasional biography, and listening to some discussions of church history by men like Iain Murray and Mark Dever.  And then I picked up more and more other history (primarily church history) books.  “Hey, this is good…”

And the recent book by Stephen Nichols, The Reformation:  How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World fits that description — this is interesting, compelling, and important!

Adopting the tactic that church history should not be boring, Nichols writes simply, clearly, directly, briefly, and engagingly.  So, to tell the story of the Reformation he begins by challenging the reader with the assertion that “the Reformation matters today.”  And then in concise chapters, he tells the story of the Reformation through the lives of Luther, Zwingli, the Anabaptists, Calvin, the British Reformation, the Puritans, and the Puritans’ wives.

Undoubtedly, the book could have included far more material (e.g., Luther’s story is recounted in less than 15 pages).  Yet rather than leaving the reader begging for the end of the book, he leaves the reader desiring more, and that’s a good thing. So this book is a helpful addition to church history literature, as it offers a helpful overview of perhaps the most important post-resurrection event in church history.

Oh, and why is it really so important to read about history and even church history?  It’s far more than merely avoiding the doom of repeating history.  We wisely read church history because,

Studying the various figures in church history, and especially the lives of the Reformers, can be a humbling experience, an experience that we, basking in the hubris of the twenty-first century, sometimes desperately need.…The things that matter most to us all center on the gospel.  The church simply can’t afford to forget the lesson of the Reformation about the utter supremacy of the gospel in everything the church does.