Historical Method and Confessional Identity in the Era of the Reformation 1378-1615 (Studies in Medieval & Reformation Thought) - Hardcover

Backus, Irena Dorota

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004129286 ISBN 13: 9789004129283

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub, 2003

Synopsis

This volume deals with the basic problem of how theologians of all confessions handled ancient, mainly Christian, history in the Reformation era. The author argues that far from being a mere tool of religious controversy, history was used throughout the 16th century to express profound religious and theological convictions and that historians and theologians of different confessions sought to define their religious identity by recourse to a particular historical method. By carefully comparing the types of historical documents produced by Calvinist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic circles, she throws a new light on patristic editions and manuals, the Centuries of Magdeburg, the Ecclesiastical Annals of Caesar Baronius and various collections of New Testament Apocrypha. Much of this material is examined here for the first time. The book substantially revises existing preconceptions about Reformation historiography and view of the past.

About this title

About the Author

Irena Backus, D.Phil.(1976), Oxford University, Dr. theol. hab. (1988), University of Berne, Hon. D.D. (2001), University of Edinburgh, is Professor of Reformation History at the University of Geneva. She has published extensively on history of Biblical Exegesis and on the reception of the Church Fathers in the West. Her publications include The Reception of the Church Fathers in the West (Brill, 1997) and Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse (2001).

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004129286
• ISBN 13: 9789004129283
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 445