Lexington Books
Pages: 220
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4985-5975-1 • Hardback • August 2018 • $122.00 • (£94.00)
978-1-4985-5976-8 • eBook • August 2018 • $115.50 • (£89.00)
Amanda Wrenn Allen is assistant professor of history at Brewton–Parker College.
Chapter 1: Planning a Debate
Chapter 2: From the Continent to England
Chapter 3: Challenging the Archbishop
Chapter 4: Sola Scriptura
Chapter 5: Turning to the Primitive Church
Chapter 6: The Debate Lives
Allen’s work successfully examines the three critical texts of the Eucharistic debate and properly places them in the theological and political world of Tudor England. Her most notable strength is the skill to extrapolate the arguments of Cranmer and Gardiner from the texts and to pinpoint the inconsistencies and ruptures in each of their arguments. She also successfully captures the political intrigue of Henry VIII’s court and persuasively demonstrates the connection between that and the personal ambitions even of religious, spiritual men. This work is an essential addition to the library of any scholar or student of theology or church history and is especially recommended for those interested in the intersection between religion and politics in the early modern period. — Renaissance and Reformation
Amanda Wrenn Allen’s narrative is driven by the life-and-death drama of Cranmer and Gardiner’s nemesis/foe relationship. She has wrested back a view of the creation of the Reformation’s English contours from one featuring secular politicians and continental reformers to one that highlights Convocation and that was the result of the crafting of English theologians. Allen’s argument makes the Eucharist central to the shape of the English church. This is not only overdue—it is vital in reflecting the theological concerns of the sixteenth-century reformers themselves.— Lisa Clark Diller, Southern Adventist University
Amanda Wrenn Allen makes several crucial points regarding the neglect of both the English Eucharist debate and the reign of Edward VI, which played a much larger role in the English Reformation than has previously been acknowledged. The influence of Thomas Cranmer and Stephen Gardner is convincingly argued as she highlights the construct of the Eucharist debate and theological reforms that occurred before the Elizabethan settlement and ultimately laid the foundations for the English Reformation. Wrenn’s final conclusions, that the English Reformation was uniquely English and less shaped by European reformers, is a radical departure from the majority of scholars; however, based on her historiographical analysis of major works, one is hard placed to counter her arguments as she demonstrates the gaps in existing scholarship. Wrenn’s work thus provides important insight into how English Reformation theology evolved as well as into the political, personal, and religious ties that shaped its formation.
— Rebecca K. Hayes, Northern Virginia Community College