Reform of the Church (CH8003L)

Content

This unit enables students to critically analyse and evaluate the history of the Reformation era, so that they may better understand the Lutheran tradition as a movement for evangelical reform within the church catholic. Students will engage with the late medieval period, through the various European reformations to the end of the sixteenth century. This study will include a special focus on the career of Martin Luther and the Lutheran reformation but will also include the reform movements led by Zwingli and Calvin; the radical reformers; the expansion of the reformation movement in Europe; Catholic renewal; and the legacies of reformations.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

Course relationship: A level 8 unit in postgraduate theology and ministry courses

Pedagogy

This unit utilises learner-centred approaches by enabling students to encounter primary texts, ask critical questions of those texts, and discuss each other’s questions in a weekly tutorial. The unit also utilises a considered approach to feedback, enabling ‘feed-forward’ feedback from both lecturer and co-students on the essay, followed by an opportunity to incorporate and react to this feedback.

Indicative Bibliography

• Appold, Kenneth G. The Reformation: a brief history. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
• Chemnitz, Martin. Examination of the Council of Trent. Translated by Fred Kramer. St Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1971.
• Hendrix, Scott H. Martin Luther: visionary reformer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
• Kolb, Robert, ed. Lutheran ecclesiastical culture, 1550-1675. Leiden: Brill, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.divinity.idm.oclc.org/lib/undiv/detail.action?docID=468198.
• Melanchthon, Philip. Commonplaces: Loci Communes 1521. Translated by Christian Preus. St Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2014.
• Stjerna, Kirsi, ed. The annotated Luther. Vol 2, Word and Faith. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2015.
• Tanner, Norman P., ed. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. London and Washington DC: Sheed & Ward, and Georgetown University Press, 1990.
• Wengert, Timothy J., ed. The annotated Luther. Vol. 1, The Roots of Reform. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2015.
• Wicks, Jared, trans. and ed. Cajetan responds: a reader in Reformation controversy. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2011.

Assessment