Reformations: the early modern world, 1450-1650
CARLOS M.N. EIRE

The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s alleged posting of his 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg has been marked already by an abundance of books, lectures, conferences and events – Pope Francis, to the consternation of some, travelled to Lund, Sweden, to join Lutheran leaders in an ecumenical service – and many more are scheduled for the coming year.

Luther’s provocative, public call for debate on papal authority and the theology of salvation has traditionally been perceived as the pivotal moment when the momentous events which we call “the Reformation” were set in motion. The distinguished historian Carlos Eire, a professor of history and religious ­studies at Yale, argues that these events not only profoundly changed the world as it was then but continue to shape our world today and to define who we are.

The late medieval world in which Luther made his protest was one in which all the social, political, economic and cultural structures of daily life were infused with religious meaning, a meaning shaped and mediated by the religious authority of the Church. This was the landscape into which the early reformers – Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and their followers – were born, educated and ordained and from which Protestantism emerged, as much a creation of the late Medieval Church as a protest against it. They set in motion the fragmentation of Christendom into a plurality of confessional communities deeply divided from one another by their conflicting views of these Christian truths.