There is always something new to learn about the Reformation. They were exciting times! Some of us have studied this time in church history before. Others may be curious to find out about people like Martin Luther, Zwingli, John Calvin, John Knox, and others.

Even just one dimension of the Reformation could occupy a whole course. However even a brief two week visit to those turbulent, fascinating, and foundational times is worthwhile.

Although we have a focus on the Reformed/Presbyterian part of the story, we remember that the Reformation is a story about Baptists as well as Lutherans, Anglicans and Catholics as well as those who came to identify themselves as Reformed or Presbyterian.

The Catholic church was undergoing change, some reforms were within it, some moved outside, and other changes were in reaction to the Protestant movements. Some Protestant (including Presbyterian) ideas were in reaction to "reformed" Catholicism. There was a lot going on!

This week we will be identifying key personalities and the sequence of events. Next week we will look at some features of Reformed Christianity which come especially from the Reformation and at how the culture of Reformed Christianity developed in the time after Calvin.

This week's readings

Diarmid MacCulloch, Reformation, 2004 on Zwingli, Calvin and Knox (pages 137-152, 234-253, and 290-295).

If you do not have a copy, just look up information about these three reformers in other books you may have and on the web. There are links on http://www.schoolofministry.ac.nz/reformed/reformation.htm

Clare Kellar, "The Privy Kirks and the Marian Exile" supplied in the Course Guide Reader.

To help you get into the story of this chapter, "privy kirks" were secret meetings of Protestants in Scotland while Scotland was still officially Catholic. The "Marian exile" refers to those who left England and Scotland during the reign of Mary Tudor, the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII. Mary tried to reverse the Reformation in England and persecuted leading Reformers. John Knox was involved in exile congregations in Frankfurt and Geneva. Out of the debates the exiles had about teaching, worship and church order came the basic patterns of the church that Knox helped set up in Scotland after 1560.

For our discussion this week:

For your own review of the period I suggest you use the readings above and the links on the page http://www.schoolofministry.ac.nz/reformed/reformation.htm  to construct a timeline of events and personalities which provide a flow of the story from the time Luther nailed his theses to the door, until the death of John Knox.

Write a couple of paragraphs about one person or event you have put on your time line and say why you think that person or event is important to remember.

John

John Roxborogh
Tutor