Hall of Heroes

Reformation Heroes, by Diana Kleyn with Joel R. Beeke.  Reformation Heritage Books, 2009, 250 pages.  Age/interest level: 11-up.

October 31, 2017 (only six years from now) will be the 500^th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door, sparking the Protestant Reformation.  It’s impossible to over-emphasize the importance of that event for western civilization—not only religiously but culturally and politically.  When asked to name the most influential person of the last millennium, most historians put Martin Luther in the top five.  It would have happened without him, of course—God, not Luther, orchestrated the events.  But God uses people to accomplish his ends, and this book is both a handy reference and a fascinating story of how men and women, noble and lowly, mild and fiery, scholarly and rough, moved the Reformation forward.  From Peter Waldo (1140-1217) to William Ames (1576-1633), from early ripples to high tide, the sweep of the Reformation unfolds.  Some Reformers lived dramatic lives that ended in martyrdom, while others huddled over paper and ink in a cold study and produced classics of faith.  All were tools in God’s hand.

The authors of Reformation Heroes set out to write “A Simple, Illustrated Overview of People Who Assisted in the Great Work of the Reformation”—that’s the subtitle, and that’s a good summary of the contents. Because the authors are writing for older children and teens, the prose style is simplified.  Most of the illustrations appear to be public domain and some are more effective than others.  For instance, a small portrait identified as Anne of Bohemia looks more like a monarch who lived a few centuries later.  Speaking of Bohemia, since that country was so influential in the early Reformation it would have been helpful to know that Bohemia is now the Czech Republic. The pronunciation guide is uneven—we’re told how to pronounce Tyndale, but not Guido de Bres.

These are small quibbles, though.  As someone who doesn’t have all her Reformation history straight, I would love to have had this book on the desk when I was homeschooling.  Each biographical chapter includes the outline of the person’s life and examples of their teachings or beliefs, often quoting from the subject or from contemporaries.  Their flaws are not overlooked, whether in character or in doctrine.  Often when a single volume contains multiple biographies they all tend to run together after a while, but the authors include enough interesting details to keep the pages turning.  Readers can compare Wycliffe’s middle-English translation of John 5:2-9 with Tyndale’s modern-English of the same passage.  Or picture the trial of John Huss, or learn how Luther prayed his friend Melanchthon away from death’s door, or stand in the crowd as Bishops Ridley and Latimer met their end.

The Reformation was a complex movement, generating both action and reaction.  The reactive side is covered in a chapter on the Counter-Reformation, and attention is also paid to the Anabaptists, who differed in significant ways from the Protestant mainstream.  A concluding chapter called “The Influence of the Reformation” sums up how Protestantism affected education, politics, and economics as well as religion.

The Appendices include a map of Europe at the time (useful for finding out where Bohemia is), maps of Cambridge and Oxford, study questions for each chapter, a glossary, and a bibliography for further study.  The timeline printed on both endpapers helps keep the Reformers sorted out while showing who occupied the thrones of Europe.

For the material covered, I haven’t seen anything better for this age group.  Though available from the usual online booksellers, where it retails for $25, Reformation Heritage Books offers it for $18 plus shipping (study guide included).  That’s a bargain!  If you’re at all interested in church history, you’ll find yourself referring to it again and again.

Be sure and check back tomorrow to see how you can win this book!

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