The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation

            McGrath’s expansive volume delves into an extensive field of the historiological analysis of the intellectual origins of the Reformation with an antidote of the contribution of the scholastic and the humanist movements. Written from the perspective of a reflective debate, the author presents four critical thematic tropes in the book, which capture the Reformation as a critical development and historical epoch[1]. McGrath delves into the precedents of the Reformation in the medieval era, the contribution of renaissance perspectives, the anomalies persistently found in the reformation scholasticism and the influence of theological schisms of the late medieval period on the Reformation. Ideological developments are hard to pin down to single events or episodes. Therefore, McGrath asserts a great deal of effort in demonstrating the causes of the Reformation as an evolutionary process. In essence, McGrath indicates that the formation was the natural culmination of creative efforts, local and cosmopolitan interactions, academic and social forces working seamlessly to challenge the institutionalized theological development of society as a whole. 

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