The Reformation

A History

De: Diarmaid MacCulloch

Narrado por: Anne Flosnik

At a time when men and women were prepared to kill - and be killed - for their faith, the Protestant Reformation tore the Western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch's award-winning history brilliantly recreates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars, and politicians - from the zealous Martin Luther and his 95 Theses to the polemical John Calvin to the radical Igantius Loyola, from the tortured Thomas Cranmer to the ambitious Philip II.

Drawing together the many strands of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives - overturning ideas of love, sex, death, and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.

©2003 Diarmaid MacCulloch (P)2017 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Superb...An essential work of religious history." ( Kirkus)

Narrator unqualified

Narrator can't pronounce Isaiah and other simple words from religion/history/geography. Super distracting. Returned audiobook of The Reformation and ordered the physical book. MacCulloch the author is amazing!

An essential piece of history to understand the modern world

Best book I’ve read in years. Political, scientific, and military history of Europe require this *detailed* understanding of religion. Also illuminates today, our schisms, our end-of-the-world obsessions, our 'morals', our weaponizing of thought.
Also illuminates many of the great things of today - our tolerance, our pursuit of scientific truth, our desire to make a better world and be better people, our ability to sacrifice and persevere for beliefs, our ability to change, to adapt, and to strike out on our own if needed.
Highly recommended.

Fasten your seatbelts...

...it's going to be a bumpy ride!

I read more than a few reviews of this title complaining about the narrator. To be honest, at first I was a little put off by the narration, but I thought -- you know, she kinda sounds like Sister Wendy Beckett. Somehow, making that association clinched it for me.

As for the book itself, it's a treasure trove of research, masterfully laid out. It covers about 150 years of history but also dips further back into early Church history. It is mostly centered around Europe but goes into detail within each country/principality. In addition to religious history, it also touches on political and dynastic changes. The book is scholarly in its depth and breadth but totally accessible to regular readers with an interest in history and religion.

Grand survey of a historic phenomenon

Excellent survey of the reformation and counter reformation across Europe. So much more than Luther.

Great book, inaccurate and error-prone reading

This is a great book, a thorough history of the Protestant Reformation (from a secular perspective). It is extremely detailed and very well-written.

I read the book while following along with the audiobook (just to keep my mind from wandering), and I'm glad I did--the audiobook reading is badly flawed. It has far too many errors for something that got published. Here's a sample of some of the errors:

the year "1190" is read for "1290" (p. 7)
"in disgrace" is read for "in prison" (p. 96)
"highly" is read for "hugely" (p. 99)
"literature" is read for "liturgy" (p. 103)
"King Charles VII" is read for "King Charles VIII" (p. 106)

et cetera.

There are also omissions. An 8-word phrase ("in any century in which he was born") is just dropped from p. 115. A whole 3-line sentence is skipped over on p. 117.

I don't understand how the reader could have made so many mistakes and then just called it good rather than re-recording to fix it. Obviously some of them are almost inconsequential, while others (getting a year wrong by 100 years) matter a lot more. But the standard for accurately reading what's on the page should be pretty high.

Other reviews took issue with the cadence and/or voice of the performer. I had no issues, but I also listened at 2x speed, so YMMV.

Good narrator, good content

This is an amazing book, really makes you deeply appreciate the philosophical questions the reformers were grappling with, the stakes, and the context. It would probably be better to read it but if you must listen this is a great listen. The narrator is skilled and effective.

Unlistenable narration

You would be forgiven for mistaking the narrator’s voice for an automatically-generated one. I would actually prefer to listen to an AI’s voice if that option were available.

Now I see why there is no sample ...

What did you like best about The Reformation? What did you like least?

It is a great story so far, but I will have to buy the book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Reformation?

Sadly, when Anne Flosnik started to speak because I spent the first 5 minutes thinking my Kindle malfunctioned and was reading in the non-Whisper synch robotic voice.

What didn’t you like about Anne Flosnik’s performance?

She took theater 101 I guess. She must have made it through the training on enunciation but quit after that. Literally every syllable is emphasized equally. It sounds just like a robot because she pauses between every syllable. I also had to listen to it at 1.5 times the speed.

Do you think The Reformation needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It couldn't be any longer ...

Any additional comments?

I will buy the book. The fact that I seldom read a book over 200 pages speaks to both the quality of the book and the horrendous narration.

Please get an audio sample up so people can be forewarned about the reader's performance.

A sweeping opus on the 500th anniversary of Luther's 95 Theses

This is the second book I've "read" by the author, the first being "Christianity: The First 3000 Years". He brings together the myriad dramas, convulsions, upheavals, and, most importantly, ideas which shook Medieval Europe to the core. Despite being a faithful adherent to a confessional tradition which traces it's roots through the Reformation period and disagreeing with the author's own presuppositions and conclusions, he presents the narrative fairly, cogently, and with a scholarly nuance that I respect and enjoy. I heartily commend it.

A Delight for Comparative World Religions Junkies

Incredibly well researched and brimming over with real history chronologically revisited. Plus lots of amazing factoids and sound bites!