Thérèse Peeters shows how trust and distrust affected reform attempts in the post-Tridentine Church, while offering a multifaceted account of day-to-day religiosity in seventeenth-century Genoa.

Johann von Staupitz is generally acknowledged as one of the most important influences on Martin Luther, convincing him of the sin-remitting grace of God. It was this revelation that was to spur Luther to formulate his theology of salvation by faith alone which was to lead to his break with the Catholic church. When Luther was brought to task by the church authorities for his heretical views it was Staupitz who was deputed to remonstrate with him, and it was Staupitz who sent a copy of his theses on indulgences to the Pope. Despite Luther's defection from Rome, he was to remain on good terms with the orthodox Staupitz who was consistently at the forefront of reformation within the Catholic Church. This book sheds light on the spiritual and theological beliefs of Staupitz, placing him in the midst of the late medieval reform efforts in the Augustianian order. It argues that as reformer, sermonizer, and friend of humanists Staupitz was a major player in the world of early sixteenth century theology who had a profound influence on the course of the Reformation.

Available in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readers This work contains fifteen key documents illustrative of reform in the Church in the period from 1495 to 1540, an age of great religious ferment and upheaval, which is marked historically by the crisis known as the Protestant Reformation. The documents collected in this work focus on the simultaneous struggle for renewal and reform within the Catholic Church. There was much amiss within the Church at the close of the Middle Ages. The Protestant Reformation threw into high relief the urgent need for religious reform. Involving basic questions of doctrine, practice, and authority, this severe trial put in jeopardy the very life of the existing Catholic Church. The balanced selection of notable and representative source materials tells their story in a lively and dramatic way. This important work on a little-known aspect of a turbulent era is a valuable contribution to Reformation studies.

The success of the Irish Counter-Reformation was a crucial development in the history of the island and subsequently a vital component in the troubled relationship between Ireland and Britain. For centuries the politics of the archipelago have been affected by conflicts whose deepest roots are located in the religious changes of the seventeenth century. This book offers a scholarly and dramatic reappraisal of a central episode in the extension of Catholic reform to the island, the papal nunciature of GianBattista Rinuccini. Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin situates Rinuccini's mission in its wider European context, and provides an entirely new perspective, not only on the man at the heart of events during the turbulent 1640s, but also on the seventeenth-century penetration of Catholic reform into Ireland and on the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

"While studies abound about Catholic Reform and its institutional or social history, its spiritual motives and practices, what one could call its "inner life," have been widely neglected. This book examines how these spiritual ideas and practices shaped the Catholic Reform and Catholic view of the world and led to a diverse but peculiarly theological imagination, a new outlook on the self and the world, and influenced human behaviors and sentiments. It tells the story of how the idea of the "inner reform of the soul" shaped a world religion. The historicization of these religious practices and beliefs makes this book also highly accessible to historians and anthropologists. It relies on a plethora of published and unpublished sources, and a wide field of secondary literature. Although the emphasis is on Europe, this book takes a global perspective by integrating material from Africa, America and Asia as it was in this era that Catholicism became a "world religion.""--

What does “Protestant†mean? What are the differences in worship among Protestants? Who were the Huguenots? What does the Reformation mean for us today? This new book by best-selling author Don McKim answers these questions and many more, providing the essential history of the Protestant Reformation. In an easy-to-use question-and-answer style, Reformation Questions, Reformation Answers highlights the key facts, people, and theologies of the Protestant Reformation, as well as major legacies of the historical movement. Published in time for the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, this new resource will help readers understand a critical moment in Christian history that still deeply affects who the church is today.

The Catholic Reformation (1999) provides a dynamic and original history of this crucial movement in early modern Europe. Starting from the late middle ages, it clearly traces the continuous transformation of Catholicism in its structure, bodies and doctrine. Charting the gain in momentum of Catholic renewal from the time of the Council of Trent, it also considers the ambiguous effect of the Protestant Reformation in accelerating the renovation of the Catholic Church. It explores how and why the Catholic Reformation occurred, stressing that many moves towards restoration were underway well before the Protestant Reformation. The huge impact the Catholic renewal had, not only on the papacy, Church leaders and religious ritual and practice, but also on the lives of ordinary people – their culture, arts, attitudes and relationships – is shown in colourful detail.

Can renewal and reform groups rekindle spiritual vitality andfervor in today's religious institutions? The call to revive one's faith fills more pages of the Christianand Jewish scriptures than any other theme. Today, reform andrenewal organizations and movements play a key role in mostdenominations, whether conservative, moderate, or liberal. In this fascinating book, Richard Cimino provides you with anin-depth look at six vibrant reform and renewal movements that arerevitalizing traditional faith communities from the inside out.Cimino walks you through how all the components of renewal andreform--the organization, the larger denomination, thecongregation, and the individual members--interact at both localand national levels, and answers the question of how effectivethese organizations and movements are within their traditions.Filled with interviews and case studies, Trusting the Spiriyconcludes by outlining strategies for renewal and reform that canbe put into practice in a wide range of religious contexts.