Remembering the Reformation An Inquiry into the Meanings of Protestantism

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 focuses the mind on the history and significance of Protestant forms of Christianity. It also prompts the question of how the Reformation has been commemorated on past anniversary occasions. In an effort to examine various meanings attributed to Protestantism, this book recounts and analyzes major commemorative occasions, including the famous posting of the 95 Theses in 1517 or the birth and death dates of Martin Luther, respectively 1483 and 1546. Beginning with the first centennial jubilee in 1617, Remembering the Reformation: An Inquiry into the Meanings of Protestantism makes its way to the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's birth, internationally marked in 1983. While the book focuses on German-speaking lands, Thomas Albert Howard also looks at Reformation commemorations in other countries, notably in the United States. The central argument is that past commemorations have been heavily shaped by their historical moment, exhibiting confessional, liberal, nationalist, militaristic, Marxist, and ecumenical motifs, among others.

1 - 1617, 1717: Commemoration in a Confessional Age
2 - A Turning Point: 1817 and the Modern Era
3 - 1883: Luthermania, Germania, and the Novus Ordo Seclorum
4 - A Memory Still Mutating: The Twentieth Century

Thomas Albert Howard is Professor of History and the Humanities and holder of the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. His publications include Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University (2006), God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide (2011), and The Pope and the Professor: Pius IX, Ignaz von Döllinger, and the Quandary of the Modern Age (2017).