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Loading... Thomas Cranmer: A Life (edition 1998)by Dr. Diarmaid MacCullochA worthy & important book, but so weighted down with intellectual rigour its almost impossible to read unless you're an Emeritus Professor of Church History. Cranmer doesnt come across as a living being in this book, but a cipher dictated by the times he lived in and the people he interacted with. Its less a biography than a thesis on the reformation church. gets 4 stars for worthiness and scholarship, about half a star for readability, in the end split the difference and its worth 2 1/2. If you're a fan of the Tudors (the family and the time period, not necessarily the miniseries) Cranmer is a man you should know. He helped found Anglicanism and provided a lot of the intellectual basis for that religion. As for the book, I keep trying to read it, but boy is the going hard. MacCulloch is a SRS BIDNESS historian, as Molly Ivins might have said, but he's no Bill Bryson in the wordsmithing department. This book is thorough. It weighs about 10 pounds in trade paperback. Doors have been wedged open with the weight of its knowledge. One time a Robert Jordan book got in a sumo match with this book and it went down like a bowl of JELL-O. Sometimes when I need to exercise my arm whilst lying in bed, I use this book for lifts. I keep hoping if I put the book under my pillow then the knowledge will get soaked up like spilled juice into Bounty paper towels. A very comprehensive book as one would expect from Dr MacCulloch. However, it reads more of a history of the early English reformation than a biography of Cranmer. Of course Cranmer was pivotal to this process, but the book focussess too much on the theological details and progression of his belief, to the exclusion of other equally important aspects of his life. Cranmer's involvement in the politics and events of the period (when not related directly to matters of religion) are too brief and never properly developed. As a result I didn't feel I got a well rounded profile of the man. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)283.092Religions Christian denominations Anglican and Episcopal Biography And History BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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