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17Evangelical christian Baptists of Georgia
И Алексий (Дородницын) во "Внутренней организации общин южно-русских необаптистов", С. 9; и Валькевич в "Записке о пропаганде протестантских сект", прил. II, С.12, приписывают текст авторству Василия Васильевича Иванова. Валькевич утверждает, что документ был конфискован при обыске в 1884 году, но датирует его концом 1870-х. Действительно, когда в 1880 году Павлов был избран и рукоположен пресвитером, Тифлисская церковь полностью переориентировалась на немецкую баптистскую модель, следовательно, текст отражает ранние тенденции, которые так никогда и не были реализованы. Почему? На это еще предстоит ответить исследователям.
Реформы, предпринятые ЕБЦ в сфере литургии и инкультурации выглядят интересно и, в некотором смысле, привлекательно. Вряд ли стоит упоминать, что не все баптисты были довольны столь радикальными переменами, и в итоге это привело к росту конфронтации между сторонниками и противниками реформ. Действительно, в какой мере введение трех степеней священства (диаконов, пресвитеров и епископов) может повлиять на традиционную баптистскую экклезиологию? Что непосредственно баптистского осталось в ИБЦ кроме благословения детей во время богослужения (304)? Читатель не получает ответов на эти вопросы.
Тем не менее, несмотря на эти незначительные упущения я настоятельно рекомендую книгу всякому, интересующемуся историей и теологией баптистов.
Александр Гейченко Университет Сент-Эндрюс Сент-Эндрюс, Великобритания
The Reformation and Early Modern Europe: A Guide to Research. Edited by David M. whitford. Sixteenth century Essays & Studies, v. 79. Kirksville, Mo: Truman State university press, 2008, xii + 456 pp. ISBN 978-1-931112-72-7 (pbk.); 39.00 USD.*
This collection of essays entitled The Reformation and Early Modern Europe, edited by David M. Whitford, is the most recent of the published and still up-to-date overviews of the state of discussion concerning the study of the European Reformations of the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. This volume is the fourth in a series of so-called "guides to research" focused on Reformation studies and related phenomena. It continues and complements the earlier volumes: Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research, edited by Stephen Ozment (1982); Catholicism in
* The review received on 6.12.2016; approved for publication on 20.12.2016.
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Early Modern History: A Guide to Research, edited by John O'Malley (1987); and Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research II, edited by William Maltby (1992).
This book serves as a reference for and introduction to the most important scholarly work on the Reformation during the last fifty to one-hundred years. It contains not only an overview of current trends within the area of Reformation studies but also catalogs their conclusions and findings. It is accompanied by bibliographic lists of the important primary and secondary sources on the topics chosen.
The scope of the collective monograph is quite wide: it is written from a complex perspective—primarily historical, religious and socio-cultural, and not purely theological. The contents are divided into three large blocks: those covering the confessional aspects of the Reformation, its regional nuances, and its crucial socio-cultural features.
The first part contains chapters on the Lutheran tradition, the Reformed tradition, early modern Catholicism, the radical wing of the Protestant Reformation, the Judaism of that era, and the essence of the "confessionalization" process. These essays are authored by David Whitford, Amy Nelson Burnett, Robert Bireley, R. Emmet McLaughlin, Matt Goldish, and Ute Lotz-Heumann, respectively. The sections discussing the Reformed and Catholic traditions are particularly successful, whereas the analysis of confessionalization and confessionalism deserves special praise. The phenomenon is analyzed from a dual perspective: "confessionalization" is regarded as the real process of church- and confession-building around a set of doctrinal ("confessional") documents, and also as a theoretical tool, a scholarly concept, that has great explanatory potential. Provided that the theory of "weak confessionali-zation" is applied accurately and appropriately, with particular sensitivity to historical material, the concept will surely prove useful and valuable (pp. 148, 150-151). At the same time, the chapter on Lutheranism is—traditionally, but not very reasonably— too much focused on the figure of Luther and Luther research and gives little information on the post-Lutheran and post-Melanchthonian developments within the tradition. Moreover, there is no section on Anglicanism, and the movements of the "further" Reformation (cf. Dutch Nadere Reformatie) such as the Mennonites, Puritans, and Baptists are completely ignored.
The second, "regional" part of the book is dedicated to reforms in Central Europe, which includes Germany, Poland, and their "smaller" neighbors (Howard Hotson); the religious and political situation in France (Barbara Diefendorf); the Catholic Reformation in Italy and Spain (Nicholas Terpstra, Allyson Poska); as well as the Protestant reformation in England, the Netherlands, and the Swiss Confederation (Peter Marshall, Christine Kooi, Bruce Gordon). Each of these chapters reveals the contextual aspects of the development and implementation of various church- and society-reforming projects. For, as R. Bireley, J.P. Donnelly and M. Maher aptly observe, it is true that "if all politics is local, so much the more is church reform, and that generalizations 'must pay close attention to the local conditions that encouraged, discouraged, and shaped the direction of reform efforts...'" (p. 71). However, there is some imbalance in the choice of "regional" research topics. The chapter on Central
The Reformation and Early Modern Europe
Europe occupies twice as much space as the other sections (almost 50 pp.). Yet, it focuses mostly on Germany and research done and published in German. Works in Polish, Czech, and Hungarian are given much less space, while Eastern and Northern Europe do not receive individual chapters or subsections at all. Such limitations significantly reduce the value of the monograph for non-western European readers.
The final third is focused on the studies of various cultural aspects of the Reformation. Here the reader will find sections on ordinary people's religious culture and its role in the reforms (Kathryn Edwards); witchcraft, popular prejudices, and real and fictional "witch hunts" (H. C. Erik Midelfort); the social and gender nuances of the Reformation (Merry Wiesner-Hanks); the history and reception of pre-, anti-, counter-, and properly Reformational art (Larry Silver); and, finally, the book culture and the mutual influence of book printing and European reforms upon each other (Andrew Pettegree). Here the choice of topics and scholarly debate is due to historical factors and academic trends. It is good that these essays present the recent achievements of gender, art-historical, sociological, and cultural studies. They significantly broaden and deepen the portrait of the Reformation, although the relevance of a separate chapter on witchcraft is somewhat debatable. At the same time, it would be no less useful to read about the transformation of educational and economic theories and practices during the Reformation era, but one will not find such chapters in the monograph.
In general, the book, as the preface says, has been intended to answer three specific questions: (a) What is the state of research in the field of Reformation studies and early modern Europe studies? What trends, discoveries or paradigms are now prevalent in the scholarly world? (b) What are the most important issues, problems, and challenges faced by scholars? (c) What are the most important and significant books or articles in the field that have been published recently? In other words, the purpose of the monograph, according to D. Whitford, is to show readers, "Where are we now, where are we going, and how do we get from here to there?" (p. x) along the way to a better understanding of the Reformations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
I must say that the book successfully answers these questions and thus achieves its set goal. It gives an excellent idea of the formation of, and variations in, the conceptual apparatus used, explaining the true meaning of such terms as "radical Reformation," "Calvinism," "Counter-Reformation," "confessionalization," etc. It also fixates the departure from macro- to micro-historical research: there are fewer and fewer scholars who try to grasp and assess the entire period of the Reformation because of the excessive pretentiousness and complexity of such a task. On the other hand, the number of scholars who offer narrower, more detailed, and in-depth studies of particular individuals, movements, or events is constantly increasing. As a result, there is a deepening of the historical and theological understanding of the role of ideas and contributions of many "secondary," but, in fact, extremely important reformers such as Philip Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, Andreas Karlstadt, Théodore Beza, Peter "Martyr" Vermigli, Jan à Lasko, Sebastian Franck, and others.
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Besides, a great deal of work has been done in terms of analysis of (un)successful local Protestant and Catholic reforms: its political, ecclesiastical, and popular levels, and its implementation in individual countries and regions. A number of books and projects, which are mentioned in this collection, elucidate some previously ignored aspects of the Reformation era, such as the true character of the Spanish Inquisition; the nature and limitations of the Dutch culture of tolerance; the interaction between culture and art on the one side, and the reformers and their reforms on the other, etc.
Thus, Reformation and Early Modern Europe should be considered an excellent introduction to the research of the early modern reformations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its main advantages are the brevity and informativity (chapters have an average size, the information is presented concisely but with sufficient detail, and bibliographical references and lists allow one to continue research further); a very competent and high-quality team of authors; academic and scholarly focus (all articles of the volume are based on the data of serious academic research and its specific findings and also represent the actual, although sometimes debatable, scholarly consensus); as well as versatility. The latter refers to the tripartite approach that is reflected in the division of the book into three parts, which correspond to different aspects of the study of the Reformation phenomenon. This is a great testimony to the versatility and diversity of the Reformation itself: it really can, and should, be viewed as a contextual religious-theological, ecclesiastical, political, and socio-cultural event.
However, one should not forget the obvious weaknesses of this collective enterprise, which were mentioned above. Here I will only remark that this book is quite narrowly focused and specialist-oriented in its format and style. It is aimed at an audience of scholars and people who are already familiar with the history and ideological paradigm of the European Reformations. At the same time, it will be of little use, difficult to understand, and quite fragmented for younger Reformation researchers and average "non-professional" readers. Yet, in the end, any reader can only agree with Ozment's statement quoted by Whitford at the very beginning: "There is no field of historical study today that is more alive with change and fresh ideas than that of Reformation Europe" (p. vii).
Rostislav Tkachenko Rivne, Ukraine
Коллективная монография "Реформация и раннемодерная Европа", вышедшая под редакцией Дэвида Уитфорда — это последний из опубликованных и по-прежнему актуальный обзор состояния дискуссии в изучении эпохи Европейских Реформаций XVI-XVI веков. Этот труд является четвертым в серии так называемых "путеводителей по исследованиям" Реформации и связанных с ней явлений. Он продолжает и дополняет ранние тома: Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research, под редакцией Стивена Озмента (Ozment) 1982 г.; Catholicism in Early Modern History: A Guide to Research, под редакцией Джона
