Adam and Eve in the Protestant Reformation

Description

The story of Adam and Eve, ubiquitous in the art and literature of the period, played a central role in the religious controversies of sixteenth-century Europe. This is the first book to explore stories about Adam and Eve in German Lutheran areas and to analyze their place in Lutheran culture and identity. Kathleen Crowther examines Lutheran versions of the story of Adam and Eve in bibles, commentaries, devotional tracts, sermons, plays, poems, medical and natural history texts, and woodcut images. Her research identifies how Lutheran storytellers differentiated their unique versions of the story from those of their medieval predecessors and their Catholic and Calvinist contemporaries. She also explores the appeal of the story of Adam and Eve to Lutherans as a means to define, defend and disseminate their distinctive views on human nature, original sin, salvation, marriage, family, gender relations and social order.

Kathleen M. Crowther is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University and has held a Mellon post-doctoral fellowship at Swarthmore College and a Kluge fellowship at the Library of Congress. Her articles have appeared in the journals Isis and Renaissance Quarterly and in several edited collections.

'A well-written, thoughtful book. Recommended.' Choice 'Kathleen Crowther, rejecting the recent regional approach of Reformation scholarship based on archives, has mined these exegetical literary and artistic sources to reconstruct what she describes as a specifically Lutheran culture and identity ...' Glyn Parry, Victoria University of Wellington 'Kathleen M. Crowther's study is to be warmly welcomed as an important contribution to Reformation studies and will doubtless inspire others to conduct similar research for other regions.' Salvador Ryan, Sixteenth Century Journal 'In this book, Kathleen Crowther analyzes the diverse ways in which the Genesis account of mankind's Creation and Fall was interpreted by Lutheran authors and artists.' Bridget Heal, The Journal of Modern History 'Crowther presents some fascinating insights into the way in which theological ideas interacted with and shaped popular understandings of the human person and the natural world.' British Journal for the History of Science 'In her book, [Kathleen Crowther] provides an insightful portrait of both the theological novelties and the historical perceptions which grew out of the Lutherean Reformation. Awarded the Gerald Strauss prize by the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Reformation theologains and early modern historians will recognise the theme of this book, but the general populace will find the topic intriguing and genuinely enlightening as explored by Crowther in this extensive and well-illustrated investigation.' Timothy Maschke, Concordia Theological Journal