24 June 2024
In three volumes, Thomas Kaufmann analyzes the contexts and effects of the Reformation.
In the first volume he examines, considering the historiographical significance of the Reformation, the extent to which it marked a „beginning.” In doing so, he focuses on the contexts and forms which were used to establish earlier Christian traditions. At the same time he deals with the communication dynamics, especially the key media of pamphlets which, starting with Luther, set the Reformation process in motion. In the second volume, the author provides micrological analyses of the collaboration between the various actors (authors, printers, publishers, book dealers, xylographers etc.) in the communication process of the early Reformation. The focus lies on reformers as „book people”, as „printing natives”. Using various types of books such as prayer books and hymnals, religious tracts or scholarly works, the author outlines the literary and journalistic reconstruction of the Reformation. In the third volume, Kaufmann examines the publications of the so-called „Herrgotts Kanzlei”. By producing more than 400 pamphlets during the Interim crisis in Magdeburg, thus articulating the only effective resistance to the religious policies of Charles V., its examination sheds a new light on the Reformation as a whole. The study is based on a bibliography published in the appendix, which for the first time provides a reliable documentation of the complete publications of the Magdeburg printers during the Interim crisis.„This expansive tome is for researchers, indispensable for those (especially historians) working in the field of Luther studies and of the early Reformation. […] This contextual analysis of Luther’s reception is precisely what is needed as scholars reassess the formative period of the Reformation as a whole and not solely through micro-historical analyses of various actors and movements focusing on their local impact.”John A. Maxfield in Lutheran Quarterly 28 (2014), pp. 233-235The set combines all three volumes at a special prize.
