Saved and the Damned

Thomas Kaufmann, the leading European scholar of the Reformation, argues that the main motivations behind the Reformation rest in religion itself.The Reformation began far from Europe's traditional political, economic, and cultural power centres, and yet it threw the whole continent into turmoil. There has been intense speculation over the last century focusing onthe political and social causes that lay at the root of this revolution. Thomas Kaufmann, one of the world's leading experts on the Reformation, sees the most important drivers for what happened in religion itself. The reformers were principally concerned with the question of salvation. It could all have ended with the pope's condemnation of Luther and his teaching. But Luther believed the pope was condemned to eternal damnation, and this was the root cause of the great split to come. Hatred ofthe damned drove people to take up arms, while countless numbers left their homes far behind and carried the Reformation message to the furthest corners of the earth in the hope of salvation. In The Saved and the Damned, Thomas Kaufmann presents a dramatic overview of how Europe was transformed by the seismic shock of the Reformation—and of how its aftershocks reverberate right down to the present day.

This book - by the greatest living authority on Martin Luther - provides a new history for our times. In gripping prose, Kaufmann explains how the Reformation spread throughout Europe and then globally, and what its legacy is today. Always he keeps an eye on the Ottoman Empire, central to the story. Kaufmann is a sure guide and knows the world of Reformation popular print inside out. This freshly written book brings sixteenth-century religious ideas to life, so that the reader grasps just why salvation and damnation mattered so much, and what the Reformation means in a united Germany now. The book is packed with unforgettable detail and original insight.

Thomas Kaufmann is Professor of Church History at the University of Gõttingen, President of the Society for Reformation History, and a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. He is the author of numerous books on Reformation history, including an acclaimed biography of Martin Luther.