Historical Significance of “The Protestant Reformation” by Hillerbrand Report (Assessment)

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Updated: Mar 20th, 2024

Introduction

Everybody knows how the historical background of any country is essential for its modern development. No wonder, historians do their best for society to know everything that is connected with social, political, and religious heritage. One of such wonderful books is called The Protestant Reformation by Hans J. Hillerbrand. It is amazing how the book captures by its compelling narration even those who have no interest in history as a subject at all. Moreover, the author managed to make a book essential even for the modern history courses. It can be used both for amateur reading and for teaching, as well, though it was firstly published more than forty-year ago. There is no doubt it hasn’t lost its significance since then.

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The Protestant Reformation’s Significance

The main topic of the book under consideration is the mindset of those who stood behind the Protestant Reformation. It is truly exciting to read and subsequently comprehend how the revolutionary spirit made people step forward. I have to admit that this book rates as one of the history buffs that automatically makes it respected among scholars. Moreover, I am talking about The Protestant Reformation as a new, revised edition that maintains old integrity and holds newly added information and historical opinions. Since the new era brought many new opinions to the history of the Reformation, the historical publications are now full of radical views and connections while The Protestant Reformation brilliantly combines both the new historical views and the old ones.

I loved that the author outlines the basic leitmotif that is read and sensed throughout the book. It can be determined in the following statement: disregarding the social impact made on the religion it still has to be considered as a fundamental issue of the history of the sixteenth century.

The Value of the Book

The preciousness of this book for many historians is in its source documents that serve as a perfect representation of those times’ political and religious events. Sometimes, students do not fully understand the essence of the Reformation and its importance within the history content. However, this book is likely to clear up all issues. For example, after reading it you can easily tell right from wrong, namely, you won’t label all sixteenth-century movements as the reformation ones. One has a chance to read about Evangelicals (Luther), the Reformed Church (Calvin), and the Anabaptists and know everything about those.

The Assessment of Author’s Writing

No doubt the book will find its admirers among many different students who haven’t read it yet. It is written in a very cohesive and understandable style. The introductions of every chapter put forward what the text is going to be about so that you can get prepared in advance and look forward to new information. Moreover, the author chose the sources wisely for the book. The sources must be picked so that a reader can dive into the epoch of the sixteenth century. You would never think that a book about history can be so compelling and interesting, sometimes even more than a mere narration or fiction. The author did a great job in describing the premises of the Reformation because understanding the event’s prelude is often a halfway victory over the history course. Hence, Hans J. Hillerbrand masterly managed to talk about the split of Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The author’s work can be assessed as broad research that ties everything together. Some scholars would say that this book does not need any other helping material because its content is enough to understand the epoch and the Protestant Reformation.

The Favorite Chapters

My favorite was about Martin Luther. It is clear from The Protestant Reformation that he addressed a common man, and the author made Luther’s speech concise enough to comprehend. It is amazing how the ideas touched upon by Luther are very relevant today, so they were during the sixteenth century. The entire book is worth reading, indeed. It is very cognitive for people studying history from different perspectives and for those who want to know about the Reformation from all facets.

Conclusion

The entire book is a nice implementation of dreams for those who wanted to have a perfectly written book about the sixteenth century at home. There is a lot of useful information for the one to peep in when it is necessary. The Protestant Reformation reveals so many details about the history of those times that you can’t possibly tear yourself away from reading. Besides, it seems like the author lived during those times of Reformation because all the Reformers merely come alive from the pages. If you have always wanted to know the premises of the Protestant Reformation – “Grievances, or complaints were part of the medieval political scene which vested representative bodies with the power and authority…” (Hillerbrand, p. 3) – and its development in real cases then this book is definitely what you want on your bookshelf. In a word, the book is worth reading for the sake of enlightenment and personal aesthetic pleasure.

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Works Cited

Hillerbrand, Hans J. The Protestant Reformation: Revised Edition. NY, New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.Print

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