Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church > Status Update
Andrew Meredith
is 45% done
A long, long chapter on Luther beginning with his early education and ending with the Diet of Worms.
Barrett is doing well defending his main thesis: Luther never wanted to leave Rome. He wanted to REFORM it from the crazy levels of corruption it had reached in his day.
— 18 hours, 27 min ago
Barrett is doing well defending his main thesis: Luther never wanted to leave Rome. He wanted to REFORM it from the crazy levels of corruption it had reached in his day.
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Andrew’s Previous Updates
Andrew Meredith
is 37% done
The popular notion that the Reformers were anti-tradition is a gross mischaracterization. "No less than Rome, the Reformers stood for a tradition and were adamant they stood within the catholic tradition. Their conflict with the papacy was not a choice between Scripture and tradition, but a conflict between their view of tradition and the papacy’s view of tradition."
— Mar 30, 2026 06:43PM
Andrew Meredith
is 33% done
"Kristeller’s definition of humanism captures its essence: a return to classical antiquity with full confidence that its ancient perspective contained the seeds by which present society could be reborn."
"If classical antiquity contained the remedy, then dedication to the retrieval of classical sources—Greek and Roman—was essential. Ad fontes—back to the source—became the theme song of Renaissance humanism."
— Mar 28, 2026 10:35AM
"If classical antiquity contained the remedy, then dedication to the retrieval of classical sources—Greek and Roman—was essential. Ad fontes—back to the source—became the theme song of Renaissance humanism."
Andrew Meredith
is 29% done
Comparing and coordinating the theologies of Duns Scotus, Ockham, and Biel, Barrett traces the decay of scholasticism that Luther reacted so strongly against.
— Mar 27, 2026 09:16AM
Andrew Meredith
is 23% done
And now it's time for a brief section with Barrett extolling the wonders of Platonism...
This is where I get skeptical of "The Great Tradition."
— Mar 26, 2026 07:35AM
This is where I get skeptical of "The Great Tradition."
Andrew Meredith
is 21% done
A long, long chapter on Thomas Aquinas and the Reformers' reaction to and use of his Summa.
I expected no less from Barrett going into the book.
He takes great pains to separate Aquinas from later, "via moderna" Scholastics (e.g., Occam, Scotus), to show how the Reformers were Thomas' heirs (some more aware of this than others) even as they critiqued comtemporary Scholasticism itself, and I think Barrett succeeds.
— Mar 24, 2026 10:26AM
I expected no less from Barrett going into the book.
He takes great pains to separate Aquinas from later, "via moderna" Scholastics (e.g., Occam, Scotus), to show how the Reformers were Thomas' heirs (some more aware of this than others) even as they critiqued comtemporary Scholasticism itself, and I think Barrett succeeds.
Andrew Meredith
is 12% done
"I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that unless I believe, I shall not understand." - Anselm
Chapter 3 traces the rise of the Scholastics, mostly by chronicling the life, works, and method of Anselm to show how indebted to him the Reformers were.
The importance of Lombard's "Sentences" in training the Reformers is highlighted as well.
— Mar 16, 2026 02:51AM
Chapter 3 traces the rise of the Scholastics, mostly by chronicling the life, works, and method of Anselm to show how indebted to him the Reformers were.
The importance of Lombard's "Sentences" in training the Reformers is highlighted as well.
Andrew Meredith
is 9% done
The second chapter traces the rise of both medieval monasticism and mysticism and delineates the Reformation's continuities and discontinuities with the eclectic movements.
— Mar 15, 2026 07:40AM
Andrew Meredith
is 4% done
"If the Reformers’ own perception is considered, then the story of the Reformation is not a story of a rebellious departure from the church catholic but a story of renewal."
— Mar 13, 2026 02:28AM
When Luther first launched his now famous campaign against indulgences and the gross corruption of those who sold them, he originally positioned himself as an informant to let the Pope in on "what was really going on out here." He sincerely thought the Pope was innocent and unaware of the practices, not realizing at the time that the explicit order for the behavior of the indulgence sellers came directly from the papal seat.
Luther blissfully did not realize his immediate peril as plans were put in place by Pope Leo himself to detain the young "heretic" and haul him to Rome. However Frederick, the local German ruler, was no friend of Rome, and he, aware of their plans, began to protect his newfound rising star. Again and again, Frederick kept Luther out of harms way.
When Luther found out the truth, he was not short of words:
“If there were no other base trickery to prove that the pope is the true Antichrist, this one would be enough to prove it. Hear this, O pope, not of all men the holiest but of all men the most sinful! O that God from heaven would soon destroy your throne and sink it in the abyss of hell!”