By Kirsten Birkett
St. Matthias Media. 101 pages. £3.99
ISBN 1 876326 09 3
I have been excited by this little book more than anything else I have read for a long time.
Kirsten Birkett studied the Reformation period for her doctorate, and is now the Director of the St. Matthias Centre for the Study of Modern Beliefs in Sydney, and is very much a part of the fine and virile evangelical work now coming out of Australia.
At the end of the 20th century, evangelical Christians are generally in a state of doctrinal confusion. Among many other things, growing biblical illiteracy, the ecumenism and covert priestcraft of sections of the charismatic movement, and the perceived equation between Protestantism and political inflexibility in Northern Ireland, are causing many Christians, especially the young, to be robbed of the riches and freedom of our Reformation heritage.
This slim volume does a marvellous job in recovering these treasures for a busy generation with no time to read great tomes. The book is divided into three sections. First there is a vivid description of what religion was like in medieval Europe, which has many echoes today. Then there is a brief historical survey of 'what happened where' in the Reformation period. Here emerge superb overviews of the lives of Luther and Calvin (among others). Thirdly, the book looks at the new world which the Reformation brought about - a whole new way of viewing reality. The doctrinal and practical reasons for the division with Roman Catholicism are brought out very clearly.
The book is simple, but its simplicity is that which comes from an author who knows her subjects inside out. Oh, to be able to put a copy of this book into the hands of every Christian young person, especially students!
