Recultivating the Vineyard: The Reformation Agendas of Christianization

This book is a much needed breath of fresh air for the student and scholar of the sixteenth century and particularly the various reform movements that swept Europe during this time. The author successfully and convincingly corrects the tendency to zealously differentiate the reform movements (Protestant and Catholic) which many do in a way that makes ecumenical dialogue and clear-eyed analysis almost impossible. I have been guilty of this tendency and it was instructive to read this book which provides a gentle but authoritative contextual "push" in a more authentically historical direction.The vantage point that this work offers is invaluable for a proper understanding of the legacy and heritage of the Reformation and seems to me to offer the potential for the opening of more ecumenical doors in the future, between and among Protestants as well as Catholics. The goals of the Reformation were as basic and timeless as the church's goals today, and an honest appraisal of the Reformation and its legacy can offer much in terms of cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue, even while valuing and respecting the individual reform movements to which many of us trace our faith tradition as well as the unifying themes that most Christians sought to lift up at the time and continue to today.