Just beginning The Reformation after finishing The Renaissance, and Durant wastes no time. Already clear this is not the simplistic “Luther showed up and fixed a corrupt church” story. He’s laying out centuries of accumulated institutional strain—church wealth, taxation, fading legitimacy, nationalism, and intellectual change—while still fairly acknowledging what Christianity provided after Rome’s collapse: order, continuity, charity, and meaning.
Just beginning The Reformation after finishing The Renaissance, and Durant wastes no time. Already clear this is not the simplistic “Luther showed up and fixed a corrupt church” story. He’s laying out centuries of accumulated institutional strain—church wealth, taxation, fading legitimacy, nationalism, and intellectual change—while still fairly acknowledging what Christianity provided after Rome’s collapse: order, continuity, charity, and meaning.