The Protestant Reformation: Thomas Muntzer

Thomas Muntzer is widely regarded as the most important figure in the Radical Reformation.But,500 years after his birth,there is still no comprehensive English translation of his work. As a result,the evaluation of his true historical influence and religious significance has been restricted.
For the first time all Muntzer's works (both published and unpublished,in Latin and in German )have been translated and gathered together in one volume.Only the liturgies are not included.Although the 1968 German edition of Franz has been used as a starting point,this is a completely new collection and translation.Professor Matheson has incorporated all subsequent advances in scholarship.His extensive notes and introduction have been written with special concern for the needs of the English-speaking reader.-Jacket.

A masterly new biography of Thomas Muntzer by a leading historian of the revolutionary Reformation movements. Controversial and complex, without an understanding of Thomas Muntzer it is impossible to gain a full understanding of the Reformation. Hitherto Muntzer has been imperfectly understood. He has often been characterized simply as an extremist: some have seen him as a theologian steeped in mystic piety, others as a rabid apocalyptic, or a relentless antagonist of Martin Luther, or an intrepid revolutionary. He has been deprecated as a restless fanatic and utopian; and just as often honoured as a selfless fighter for truth and justice. Professor Goertz has found the key to understanding the many controversial aspects of Muntzer's life in Muntzer's extraordinary ability to relate social conflicts with theological thinking, in a world where changing medieval traditions took on profound spiritual dimensions, created new social conflicts, and ultimately revolutionized the social and spiritual lives of ordinary people. Goertz shows how Muntzer was inseparably apocalyptic mystic and revolutionary.