Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church > Status Update
Andrew Meredith
is 33% done
"Kristeller’s definition of humanism captures its essence: a return to classical antiquity with full confidence that its ancient perspective contained the seeds by which present society could be reborn."
"If classical antiquity contained the remedy, then dedication to the retrieval of classical sources—Greek and Roman—was essential. Ad fontes—back to the source—became the theme song of Renaissance humanism."
— Mar 28, 2026 10:35AM
"If classical antiquity contained the remedy, then dedication to the retrieval of classical sources—Greek and Roman—was essential. Ad fontes—back to the source—became the theme song of Renaissance humanism."
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Andrew’s Previous Updates
Andrew Meredith
is 37% done
The popular notion that the Reformers were anti-tradition is a gross mischaracterization. "No less than Rome, the Reformers stood for a tradition and were adamant they stood within the catholic tradition. Their conflict with the papacy was not a choice between Scripture and tradition, but a conflict between their view of tradition and the papacy’s view of tradition."
— 17 hours, 50 min ago
Andrew Meredith
is 29% done
Comparing and coordinating the theologies of Duns Scotus, Ockham, and Biel, Barrett traces the decay of scholasticism that Luther reacted so strongly against.
— Mar 27, 2026 09:16AM
Andrew Meredith
is 23% done
And now it's time for a brief section with Barrett extolling the wonders of Platonism...
This is where I get skeptical of "The Great Tradition."
— Mar 26, 2026 07:35AM
This is where I get skeptical of "The Great Tradition."
Andrew Meredith
is 21% done
A long, long chapter on Thomas Aquinas and the Reformers' reaction to and use of his Summa.
I expected no less from Barrett going into the book.
He takes great pains to separate Aquinas from later, "via moderna" Scholastics (e.g., Occam, Scotus), to show how the Reformers were Thomas' heirs (some more aware of this than others) even as they critiqued comtemporary Scholasticism itself, and I think Barrett succeeds.
— Mar 24, 2026 10:26AM
I expected no less from Barrett going into the book.
He takes great pains to separate Aquinas from later, "via moderna" Scholastics (e.g., Occam, Scotus), to show how the Reformers were Thomas' heirs (some more aware of this than others) even as they critiqued comtemporary Scholasticism itself, and I think Barrett succeeds.
Andrew Meredith
is 12% done
"I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that unless I believe, I shall not understand." - Anselm
Chapter 3 traces the rise of the Scholastics, mostly by chronicling the life, works, and method of Anselm to show how indebted to him the Reformers were.
The importance of Lombard's "Sentences" in training the Reformers is highlighted as well.
— Mar 16, 2026 02:51AM
Chapter 3 traces the rise of the Scholastics, mostly by chronicling the life, works, and method of Anselm to show how indebted to him the Reformers were.
The importance of Lombard's "Sentences" in training the Reformers is highlighted as well.
Andrew Meredith
is 9% done
The second chapter traces the rise of both medieval monasticism and mysticism and delineates the Reformation's continuities and discontinuities with the eclectic movements.
— Mar 15, 2026 07:40AM
Andrew Meredith
is 4% done
"If the Reformers’ own perception is considered, then the story of the Reformation is not a story of a rebellious departure from the church catholic but a story of renewal."
— Mar 13, 2026 02:28AM
Humanism was not a school of thought or a philosophy per say. It was an "attitude." An attitude specifically toward the Greco-Roman world as a kind of golden age to be retrieved through learning.
"While Erasmus limited himself to the Greek and Latin, Tyndale took a step further by translating the Greek into the vernacular. Why take such a risk that could end in death? Erasmus did not take the risk. Tyndale did because he was convinced that translating the Scriptures into the vernacular was synonymous with making the evangelical view of grace accessible in the vernacular. Erasmus may have been discontent with abuses in the church of Rome, but he was not so discontent with the church’s theology to put his own life on the line like Tyndale. Erasmus may have inspired other humanist endeavors, but Tyndale inspired a reformation. The difference was between philosophia Christi and solus Christus."
"The irony was not lost on humanists and Reformers alike: the method of the humanists—ad fontes—resulted in the excavation of not only texts but a theology they could not agree with."