The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Reformation and Protestantism

by James Stuart Bell, Tracy M. Sumner

As easy to understand history of the Reformation and how it created modern Protestantism.-- Excellent use of The Complete Idiot's Guide "RM" format to take a complex historical event and give it meaning to members of any denomination.

-- Author has a proven track record with this series as co-author of The Complete Idiot's Guide "RM" to the Bible, and brings a credible name and approach to Christian booksellers and readers.

-- No competition in the marketplace, and readers are asking for this book!

Many Protestants today -- whether Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Episcopalian -- have never understood how or why each has different traditions and beliefs. Historically, each denomination comes from the same beginnings -- the Reformation. Authors Bell and Sumner take readers on a journey from Martin Luther's time through medieval Europe, Old England, colonial American to today, explaining not only big schisms (like the break with Rome) but smaller ones (like John Wesley's break from the Anglican church to form modern Methodism.) Covering everything from Henry VIII's agenda to the North American Great Awakening, The Complete Idiot's Guide "RM" to the Reformation and Protestantism puts everything in perspective.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Christian

416 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2002

About the author

James Stuart Bell is the owner of Whitestone Communications, a literary development agency. He consults with numerous publishers, represents various authors, and provides writing and editing services. He has previously served as executive editor at Moody Press, director of religious publishing at Doubleday, and publisher at Bridge Publishing. He also has more than one hundred books with cover credit. He coauthored the best-selling Complete Idiot's Guide to the Bible (more than 300,000 sold) and numerous other Christian guides in that series for the Penguin Group. He has also contributed numerous Christian volumes to the best-selling Cup of Comfort series by Adams Media.

Reviews

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the book accomplishes what it sets out to do: provide a general overview of the Reformation and development of Protestant organizations and philosophies. So, in that respect, I gave it four stars. However, even for a brief outline, I think it suffered in overall quality (lots of generalizations, lots of opinions by the authors without references or support). So, it's a nice way to get a general overview -- very general -- but no one should cite this book in a research paper beyond the level of high school.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose the wrong style of book to read about the Reformation. This book is highly repetitive which it is designed to be. I was also not looking for a book with the bias toward Protestantism that this one has. I was looking for a simple, concise history and this is not that book.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far this is giving a nice overview of the issues, persoalities and history.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of this topic and reference work.