Radical Reformation (Topical Term)

Work cat.: "Just as in the times of the Apostles" : uses of history in the Radical Reformation, c2005: p. 19 ("Franklin Littell identified Renaissance humanists' thought and the magisterial Reformers as two sources of primitivist thought underlying the Radical Reformation's approach to ecclesiastical history.") p. 21 (The Reformation radicals' more thoroughgoing primitivism implied that the apostolic church became a normative model for their reforming visions, distinguishing them from the magisterial Reformers)

Early modern Germany, 1477-1806, 1992: p. 43 (Recent studies have shed light on the Radical Reformation, a movement of Christian sects condemned by Luther as "false brethren"; most had utopian social revolutionary programmes; the Radical Reformation attracted a mass following. The best-known leaders were Andreas Karlstadt, Gabriel Zwilling, and Thomas Muentzer, and the best-known of the radical sects was the Anabaptists. The radical sects were deeply involved in the Peasants' War)

Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation, 1996: Radical Reformation (outwardly this movement was formed by reforming and separatist groups that left or didn't join the three main Protestant confessions--Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican. This sociologically radical and theologically primitivist movement disparaged learning and classical education, espoused simple life of peasants and artisans, dressed plainly and preferred vernacular Bibles; the historiography that separates the radical Reformation from magisterial Protestantism was initiated by Heinrich Bullinger, who saw the radical Reformation as a monster reared against true Protestantism; also called "Left Wing of the Reformation"; see also Anabaptists, Antitrinitarianism, Bohemian Brethren, Hutterites, Melchorites, Mennonites, Polish Brethren, Socinianism, and Unitarianism)

Early Anabaptist spirituality, 1994: p. xii (In our post-Christian era there is a renewed interest in the witness and testimony of the Radical Reformation, going well beyond the Mennonites and Amish, Hutterians, Unitarians, and Schwenkfelders who are its direct descendants)

The new Cambridge modern history, 1990: p. 24 (In itself the Reformation marked no break in European economic development; but the radical movements, such as the Anabaptists, who looked to an immediate realisation of what they deemed the true Christian life, failed and were marginalized)