Protestants

Protestants: A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania, 1517-1740 presents a comprehensive thematic history of the rise and influence of the branches of Christianity that emerged out of the Protestant Reformation.

• Represents the only English language single-volume survey of the rise of early modern Protestantism from its Lutheran beginnings in Germany to its spread to America
• Offers a thematic approach to Protestantism by tracing its development within the social, political, and cultural context of early modern Europe
• Introduces innovative argument that the central dynamic of Protestantism was not its struggle with Catholicism but its own inner dynamic
• Breaks from traditional scholarship by arguing that the rise of Reformation Protestantism lasted at least two centuries
• Unites Old World and New World Protestant histories

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Law and Gospel 1

1 Foundations 8

Wittenberg and Rome 9

Leucorea 9

Our theology 11

Theses, dialogue, and debate 15

Martin Luther and the German nation 19

Swiss Protestants 24

The gospel of Christian freedom 24

Reformations 33

Order 33

Disorder 40

Geneva and Europe 47

The honor of Christ 47

The Reformed matrix 55

2 Kingdoms 60

Kings, Priests, and Prophets 61

Civic Protestantism 65

Theaters of reform 65

Commune and covenant 70

The Politics of Faith 74

Protestant polities 74

Conscience and authority 82

Scripture and identity 87

3 Communities 93

Biblical Utopias 94

The Pursuit of Purity 98

Wheat and tares 98

Godly people 107

New World Protestants 115

The holy commonwealth 115

The ways of providence 121

4 Dominions 128

Bonds of Communion 129

Under the cross 129

Confessional culture: the Protestants of Germany 135

Christian Subjects 144

The pansophic mind 144

The biblical soul 150

Protestant Environments 158

Liturgy and architecture 158

Christianography 163

The Missionary Turn 168

5 Revivals 174

Signs of the Times 175

Histories 175

Prophecy and wrath 180

True Christianity 184

Pietists 184

The radical rebirth 197

The End of Reformation 205

Politics and piety 205

Mixed multitudes 212

Epilogue: Modern Protestants 223

Endnotes 229

Index 261

“In this thoughtful and highly original book, Scott Dixon takes a thematic approach to the process of building the new Christian communities … Scott Dixon has done an admirable job, given the constraints of space and the breadth of his coverage, in painting a broad-ranging and sophisticated picture of a complex and expansive movement.” (EHR Oxford Journal Clippings, 6 June 2012)

"Dixon's contribution lies, rather, in his fascinating and highly original thesis that the formative phase of Protestantism, as a creative social force, must be viewed as extending to the revivalist impulses of the 18th-century Great Awakening in the New World...Dixon's writing here is detailed, solid, and compelling. Summing Up: Highly recommended." (Choice, 1 May 2011)

"This is a remarkable work, for its striking originality, its powerful and independent-minded synthesis, its sensitivity to the primary and secondary material, its deployment of really gripping examples and case studies, and its conjoining of the European and North American Protestant experience….”—Mark Greengrass, University of Sheffield

C. Scott Dixon is Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University of Belfast, UK. He is the author of numerous books and articles on early modern religious history, including The Reformation and Rural Society (1996) and The Reformation in Germany (2002). Dixon has been the recipient of Alexander von Humboldt research fellowships in association with the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel and the Freie Universität Berlin. Protestants: A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania 1517-1740 presents a comprehensive historiography of the rise, reception, and ongoing global influence of the branches of Christianity that emerged out of the Protestant Reformation. Offering more than a chronological recounting of historic events, renowned religious scholar C. Scott Dixon reveals the role of Protestantism as a creative force in history. Dixon draws on new cultural history to explore the social and cultural dimension of the Reformation as he follows the path of the movement's unfolding from its humble origins in a town in Saxony in sixteenth-century Germany to its bold re-fashioning and reconstitution during the dawn of the Enlightenment in Europe and colonial America. In a break from traditional scholarship, Dixon demonstrates how the formative phase of early modern Protestantism stretched far beyond the age of Luther and Calvin -- that the social, cultural, and political problematic created by the breach with Roman Catholicism was not historically resolved until it had become a transatlantic phenomenon. We are shown how the central dynamic of the Protestant movement was not, in fact, its struggle with Catholicism, but rather its own inner conflict; namely, the tension between established forms of Protestantism such as Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism and the radical elements that had been suppressed and marginalised at the beginning of the Reformation. Protestants: A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania 1517-1740offers a startling new perspective on the complex strands of a 16th-century religious upheaval whose repercussions remain with us to the present day.