This Changed Everything

The Christian History Institute marks the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation—dated at 1517, when Martin Luther posted his famous Ninety-Five Theses challenging the Roman Church on the door of the cathedral at Wittenberg, the German university town where he taught theology—with this three-part series that juxtaposes a straightforward narrative, read by actor David Suchet and accompanied by a rich collection of artwork, with comments from an array of theologians representing various Christian denominations. The opening episode focuses on the first-generation reform leaders Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli, ending with their inability to coalesce their respective movements due to disagreement over the Eucharist—the first of many such divisions. The second episode turns to the English Reformation, with virtually all of the commentators here castigating Henry VIII for initiating a break with Rome for his own personal and political—rather than doctrinal—reasons. Also covered is the radical Anabaptist movement that rose against Zwingli in Zurich, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, with a specific focus on the influential Council of Trent. The third episode looks at John Calvin and the second stage of the English Reformation (with its swerves from Catholicism to Protestantism and back again), before concluding with a discussion of the ecumenical movement of the late 20th century and the potential for reunification that it embodied. Overall, this is a slickly-made series that presents a very good overview of the Reformation and the subsequent denominational fragmentation of Western Christendom. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)