Farewell to epochs in Reformation history

Abstract

This essay takes a critical view of conventionally subdividing the span between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries into periods. It queries terms like ‘Middle Ages’, ‘late Middle Ages’, ‘Renaissance’, ‘Reformation’, ‘pre-modern’, ‘early modern’, and ‘modern period.’ These macro-historical constructs are misleading, it argues, for they create the illusion of European history as a succession of relatively uniform eras separated by clear breaks, revealing a purposeful, linear ‘development’ connecting medieval premodernity with Enlightenment modernity. It is sensible to contrast the Reformation with the previous Church, theology, and piety. However, it is illadvised to interpret this religious ‘system break’ as a change of eras beyond question. The Reformation sustained a pre-existing momentum of change, but also left much culture unaltered. Accordingly, it was neither medieval nor early modern, nor an independent period sandwiched between medieval and modern periods. Instead, it was a far-reaching reconfiguration of parts of the Western Church between 1520 and 1560 that was both deeply rooted in the past and pointing to the future.