The Saved and the Damned: A History of the Reformation, originally published in German in 2017, and now available in an excellent translation by Tony Crawford, offers English-language readers a fascinating glimpse into the research of Thomas Kaufmann, a renowned expert on Reformation history. The book opens with a chronology of events and a list of illustrations. Then follows Chapter 1, in which the author makes some central methodological statements. First, he notes that the Reformation was an international event from its very inception. Therefore, any history of the Reformation that “remains bound up in national histories cannot escape the shadow of the nineteenth century, nor do justice to the specifically European character of the Reformation” (3). This historiographical observation is important to the book’s wider argument, which aims to move beyond national histories of the Reformation. Such histories tend to focus on how ideas formulated in a specifically Saxon setting were subsequently adapted to different contexts. The idea of adaptation is misleading, according to Kaufmann, because the printing press and the European scope of the Roman Church facilitated a much more general uprising. In addition, the Lutherans of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries interpreted their uprising as part of a divine plan: the early Reformation was an eschatological event whereby God intervened in history and saved Christianity from the papal Antichrist. This triumphalism shaped Lutheran mentalities and constituted the template for how the Reformation was (and to some extent still is) constructed in cultural memory. Against this triumphant account, researchers have insisted that the Reformation was not a homogeneous event. Indeed, these researchers speak not about the Reformation in the singular, but about Reformations in the plural. However, although Kaufmann obviously does not share the triumphalism of the past, he also rejects the pluralistic approach. Outlining the book’s overall argument, the first chapter connects three claims, as follows: (1) the Reformation was a European event; (2) while this event was anticipated by late medieval developments, those developments do not fully explain the form taken by the Reformation, which thus constituted a new or original historical formation; and (3) Luther was at the origin of that formation.

Based on this framework, Chapter 2 outlines Christendom as it had developed within the Holy Roman Empire by the dawn of the sixteenth century. Kaufmann highlights the empire’s eschatological reading of history, its late medieval structure, and its ambition to reform society, but he also points to its conflictual relations with the Roman Curia. He discusses the precarious living conditions of everyday people, the role of the universities, the diverse forms of late medieval piety, the revolution wrought by the printing press, and the impact of humanist cultures of learning. According to the author, these developments constitute necessary but insufficient conditions to explain the Reformation.

Against this historical background, Chapter 3 turns to the crux of the matter: the early Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire. The designation “early” is important to Kaufmann’s argument. He identifies the historical period beginning with the events that led to Luther’s excommunication and ending with the imperial diet of Augsburg in 1530. During this brief time span, according to Kaufmann, the very pillars of the existing order were overturned, and therefore this period must “be accounted for as a separate unit with its own historical value” (55). This part of the book paints a multifocal portrait of Luther: we see him as a young man amid his family, as a zealous Augustinian monk, and as a university professor who focused on human passivity in relation to salvation and founded the “Wittenberg school.” It was within the latter context that Luther publicly voiced his criticism of indulgences and found himself in direct confrontation with Emperor Charles V at the diet of Worms in April 1521. Kaufmann remarks that a glorifying interpretation of this event became an important part of the Protestant self-image campaign. This campaign in turn played an important role in the spread and acceleration of the Reformation in the cities. In Chapter 4, Kaufmann further describes the expansion of the Reformation throughout Europe. In particular, he demonstrates that the Reformation’s impact was not only religious but also legal, economic, political, and social. He is uniquely skilled in recounting major events such as the marriage of Henry VIII in England, the death of Michael Servetus in Switzerland, and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France, to mention but a few.

Chapter 5 engages with another of Kaufmann’s fields of expertise: the Reformation jubilees celebrated between 1617 and 2017. The 1617 jubilee was a celebration for Protestants, to which Pope Paul V reacted by proclaiming a holy year and offering plenary indulgences. These differing cultures of commemoration showcase tensions and identity formations as they unfolded on the brink of the Thirty Years’ War. In this chapter, Kaufmann surveys the rich historiography that started as early as the first biographies of Luther and sixteenth-century accounts of the Reformation. Drawing on this previous research, this convincing analysis reveals the polarizations of opinion that have exercised considerable influence on Lutheranism. In the sixth and final chapter, Kaufmann retraces some of the cultural, social, economic, and legal transformations that followed in the wake of the “early” Reformation. The last section, titled “Global Protestantism,” sheds light on the various Reformation movements as they impacted the world outside of Europe.

Kaufmann’s book is a good read, including in this English translation. In certain instances, the tone of the German and the connotations of the technical terms could not be preserved, but this is no surprise, and certainly no fault of the translator. While Kaufmann’s methodological stance might be debated, his expertise on Reformation history is unquestionable. This historiographical synthesis should serve experts and nonexperts alike as a source of inspiration, as well as sparking further questions. Inspired readers will be happy to learn that Kaufmann has offered potential answers to such questions in his other research.