the Imaginative World of Reformation

Bol Partner

The stirrings of the Reformation sweeping through Europe caught the imagination of whole peoples. While the Reformation has traditionally been understood in terms of changes in social and political structures and history of doctrine, Peter Matheson argues that the underlying shift was in the very perception of reality. It replaced the 'enchanted world' of the medieval church with a different imaginative world, and it is this shift which in turn accounted for the radical nature and extent of the Reformation itself. A most important and fascinating work of original research and analysis - by one of the world's leading Reformation historians. Comprehensively illustrated.

Bol

In this small gem of Reformation research, Peter Matheson offers a rich view of the Reformation as it appeared in pamphlets and sermons, woodcuts and paintings, poetry and song, correspondence and the contours of daily life. The popular media he explores evince the Reformation's novel use of images and metaphors, its deep effects on personal and family life and spirituality, heightened civic engagement, great utopian dreams and experiments, as well as its nightmarish excesses.