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Fatal discord : Erasmus, Luther, and the fight for the Western mind / Michael Massing.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First editionDescription: xvi, 987 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0060517603
  • 9780060517601
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part I. Early struggles. The new Europe -- Miner's son -- Candlelight studies -- Penance and dread -- Breakthrough -- The vow in the storm -- Part II. Discoveries. Back to the Fathers -- Angry with God -- Renaissance tour -- Self-righteous Jews -- A blueprint for Europe -- The gate to paradise -- Annus mirabilis -- A friar's cry -- Part III. Rumblings. For the want of Greek type -- A drunken German -- Unbridled -- Onto the world stage -- Uncommitted -- The great debate -- The viper strikes -- Thunderclaps -- Bonfires -- Faith and fury -- Will he come? -- Judgment at Worms -- Part IV. Agitation. The martyr's crown -- Outlaw -- Was nowhere safe? -- Satan falls upon the flock -- The Pope of Wittenberg -- The new gospel spreads -- True Christian warfare -- A shower of stones -- Part V. Rupture. The gospel of discontent -- Uprising -- The murdering hordes -- Fatal dissension -- Invasion by scripture -- Vandals -- The crack-up -- Madness -- Enemies of Christ -- Aftermath: Erasmus -- Aftermath: Luther.
Summary: Presents an intellectual assessment of the rivalry between Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther that examines their respective characters and belief systems, sharing insights into their enduring influence and proper historical roles in Western tradition.
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Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 270.6092 M418 Available 33111009187994
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

New York Times Notable Book of 2018

Library Journal Best Book of 2018

"[2017] saw a profusion of books about Martin Luther to mark the 500th anniversary of his posting the 95 Theses. Massing widens the lens wondrously, bringing in Erasmus, the great humanist foe of Luther, and showing how their rivalry set the course for much of Western civilization. Reviewing the book, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein applauds this 'inspired approach': 'Massing, a journalist, has produced a sprawling narrative around the rift between the two men, laying out the sociological, political and economic factors that shaped both them and Europe's responses to them, and tracing their theological disputes back to the earliest days of Christianity,' she writes. 'Though a massive amount of material is marshaled, Massing's journalistic skills keep the story line crisply coherent.'"--New York Times

Erasmus was the leading figure of the Northern Renaissance. At a time when Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael were revolutionizing Western art and culture, Erasmus was helping to transform Europe's intellectual and religious life, developing a new design for living for a continent rebelling against the hierarchical constraints of the Roman Church. When in 1516 he came out with a revised edition of the New Testament based on the original Greek, he was hailed as the prophet of a new enlightened age. Today, however, Erasmus is largely forgotten, and the reason can be summed up in two words: Martin Luther. As a young friar in remote Wittenberg, Luther was initially a great admirer of Erasmus and his critique of the Catholic Church, but while Erasmus sought to reform that institution from within, Luther wanted a more radical transformation. Eventually, the differences between them flared into a bitter rivalry, with each trying to win over Europe to his vision.

In Fatal Discord, Michael Massing seeks to restore Erasmus to his proper place in the Western tradition. The conflict between him and Luther, he argues, forms a fault line in Western thinking--the moment when two enduring schools of thought, Christian humanism and evangelical Christianity, took shape. A seasoned journalist who has reported from many countries, Massing here travels back to the early sixteenth century to recover a long-neglected chapter of Western intellectual life, in which the introduction of new ways of reading the Bible set loose social and cultural forces that helped shatter the millennial unity of Christendom and whose echoes can still be heard today. Massing concludes that Europe has adopted a form of Erasmian humanism while America has been shaped by Luther-inspired individualism.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 828-954) and index.

Part I. Early struggles. The new Europe -- Miner's son -- Candlelight studies -- Penance and dread -- Breakthrough -- The vow in the storm -- Part II. Discoveries. Back to the Fathers -- Angry with God -- Renaissance tour -- Self-righteous Jews -- A blueprint for Europe -- The gate to paradise -- Annus mirabilis -- A friar's cry -- Part III. Rumblings. For the want of Greek type -- A drunken German -- Unbridled -- Onto the world stage -- Uncommitted -- The great debate -- The viper strikes -- Thunderclaps -- Bonfires -- Faith and fury -- Will he come? -- Judgment at Worms -- Part IV. Agitation. The martyr's crown -- Outlaw -- Was nowhere safe? -- Satan falls upon the flock -- The Pope of Wittenberg -- The new gospel spreads -- True Christian warfare -- A shower of stones -- Part V. Rupture. The gospel of discontent -- Uprising -- The murdering hordes -- Fatal dissension -- Invasion by scripture -- Vandals -- The crack-up -- Madness -- Enemies of Christ -- Aftermath: Erasmus -- Aftermath: Luther.

Presents an intellectual assessment of the rivalry between Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther that examines their respective characters and belief systems, sharing insights into their enduring influence and proper historical roles in Western tradition.

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