THE UNQUENCHABLE FLAME:
Discovering the heart of the Reformation
By Michael Reeves
IVP. 192 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 783 595 297
This reprint from 2010 has clearly been timed to match the 500th anniversary of Luther’s protest against indulgences in 1517, which is traditionally regarded as marking the beginning of the Reformation.
It is a fine book which deserves a wide readership. Why do I recommend it so highly? Firstly, the author recognises that the complex of events and personalities which together make up what we refer to as the Reformation were of enormous importance and do not deserve to be forgotten by Christian people. He writes as a man with a cause, namely to persuade modern believers that God did something remarkable during the 16th century that deserves our admiration.
Reformation personalities
Secondly, the author has captured the individual personalities at the heart of the events in all their diversity in a very striking way. Read the book (and I heartily recommend that you do) and you will see how God used people with very different temperaments, such as Martin Luther, the human volcano, and John Calvin, a much more reserved and taciturn individual. By the way, it is not just these two ‘usual suspects’ who feature. There is a sizeable cast of characters mentioned in the book and a whole chapter on the English Puritans, which I promise will go a long way to dispel any ideas that seem so prevalent nowadays that they were a pretty grim lot.
Thirdly, the author has a very engaging style. He communicates well. You will enjoy his way with words. He has an enviable ability to make 16th-century characters seem like people that you would meet in the course of everyday life. Finally, there is a useful closing chapter which addresses the question: ‘Is the Reformation over?’ He concludes that as long as we need to ask the questions ‘What is a Christian?’ and ‘What is our authority for resolving that question?’, the issues that lay at the heart of the Reformation will always be with us. I do have one or two very minor quibbles. In a very small number of places, there are minor errors which ought to have been weeded out at the editorial stage. Nevertheless, these are small blemishes on a very fine book indeed which is an excellent introduction to the story of the Reformation.
