Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World [Hardcover]

In Protestants Alec Ryrie presents a dazzling global history charting five centuries of innovation and change to make the case that the world in which we live was indelibly shaped by a revolution set in motion my an obscure monk who challenged the authority of the pope with a radical new vision of what Christianity could be—the Protestant Reformation.

Ryrie introduces readers to the men and women who defined the quarrelsome Protestant faith that has unwittingly toppled governments, upended social norms, and transformed millions of people's understanding of their relationship with God. Some turned to their newly accessible Bibles to justify bold acts of political opposition, others to support a new understanding of how they should live. Protestants are conditioned to fight for their beliefs, and if you look at any of the great confrontations of the last five centuries, you will find them defining the debate on both sides: for and against monarchy, colonialism, slavery, fascism, communism, temperance, and war. Protestants are people who love God and take on the world.

This magisterial book by a brilliant scholars of the Reformation makes the case that whether or not you are yourself a Protestant, you live in a world—and are guided by principles and ideas—shaped by Protestants.