A sumptuously written people’s history and a major retelling and reinterpretation of the story of the English Reformation Centuries on, what the Reformation was and what it accomplished remain deeply contentious. Peter Marshall’s sweeping new history—the first major overview for general readers in a generation—argues that sixteenth-century England was a society neither desperate for nor allergic to change, but one open to ideas of “reform” in various competing guises. King Henry VIII wanted an orderly, uniform Reformation, but his actions opened a Pandora’s Box from which pluralism and diversity flowed and rooted themselves in English life. With sensitivity to individual experience as well as masterfully synthesizing historical and institutional developments, Marshall frames the perceptions and actions of people great and small, from monarchs and bishops to ordinary families and ecclesiastics, against a backdrop of profound change that altered the meanings of “religion” itself. This engaging history reveals what was really at stake in the overthrow of Catholic culture and the reshaping of the English Church.

After Henry -- Visitation -- Services for the Living and Dead -- The Time of Schism -- Common Prayer -- 11 SLAYING ANTICHRIST -- 'Item, We will have . . .' -- 'The Perseverance of God's Word' -- Rochets and Strangers -- Mary's Mass -- The Kingdom of Christ -- Carnal Gospelling -- 12 THE TWO QUEENS -- Devices for the Succession -- God and the World Knoweth -- The Clucking Hen -- Rebellion -- Verbum Dei -- Zeal for God's Service -- Exiles and Nicodemites -- 13 TIME OF TRIAL -- Reconciliation -- Welcome the Cross of Christ -- Profitable and Necessary Doctrine -- The Hand in the Fire -- Legacies -- PART IV Unattainable Prizes -- 14 ALTERATION -- A Glass with a Small Neck -- Elevation and Coronation -- Parliamentary Problems -- Supremacy and Uniformity -- Alterations and Additions -- Old Bishops, New Bishops -- Visitation and Resistance -- 15 UNSETTLED ENGLAND -- Country Divinity -- Enormities in the Queen's Closet -- Queen Checks Bishops -- Plague and Retribution -- Mislikers of True Religion -- Rags of Rome -- The Religion Really Observed -- 16 ADMONITIONS -- The Queen of Scots -- Counter-Reformation in the North -- Aftermath -- Regnans and Ridolfi -- The Scrupulosity of Princes -- An Axe or an Act? -- Ambitious Spirits -- Grindal -- Prophesyings -- 17 WARS OF RELIGION -- A Shot Across the Bows -- Jesuits -- The Execution of Justice -- Country Divinity -- Without Tarrying for Any -- Bonds and Associations -- War -- Armada and Marprelate -- Strange Contrariety of Humours -- POSTSCRIPT -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES -- INDEX

"A sumptuously written people's history and a major retelling and reinterpretation of the story of the English Reformation Centuries on, what the Reformation was and what it accomplished remain deeply contentious. Peter Marshall's sweeping new history--the first major overview for general readers in a generation--argues that sixteenth-century England was a society neither desperate for nor allergic to change, but one open to ideas of "reform" in various competing guises. King Henry VIII wanted an orderly, uniform Reformation, but his actions opened a Pandora's Box from which pluralism and diversity flowed and rooted themselves in English life. With sensitivity to individual experience as well as masterfully synthesizing historical and institutional developments, Marshall frames the perceptions and actions of people great and small, from monarchs and bishops to ordinary families and ecclesiastics, against a backdrop of profound change that altered the meanings of "religion" itself. This engaging history reveals what was really at stake in the overthrow of Catholic culture and the reshaping of the English Church"--

A lively examination of the heretics who helped Christianity become the world’s most powerful religion. From Arius, a fourth-century Libyan cleric who doubted the very divinity of Christ, to more successful heretics like Martin Luther and John Calvin, this book charts the history of dissent in the Christian Church. As the author traces the Church’s attempts at enforcing orthodoxy, from the days of Constantine to the modern Catholic Church’s lingering conflicts, he argues that heresy—by forcing the Church to continually refine and impose its beliefs—actually helped Christianity to blossom into one of the world’s most formidable religions. Today, all believers owe it to themselves to grapple with the questions raised by heresy. Can you be a Christian without denouncing heretics? Is it possible that new ideas challenging Church doctrine are destined to become as popular as Luther’s once-outrageous suggestions of clerical marriage and a priesthood of all believers? A delightfully readable and deeply learned new history, Heretics overturns our assumptions about the role of heresy in a faith that still shapes the world. “Wright emphasizes the ‘extraordinarily creative role’ that heresy has played in the evolution of Christianity by helping to ‘define, enliven, and complicate’ it in dialectical fashion. Among the world’s great religions, Christianity has been uniquely rich in dissent, Wright argues—especially in its early days, when there was so little agreement among its adherents that one critic compared them to a marsh full of frogs croaking in discord.” —The New Yorker

Traces the decline of Christianity in America since the 1950s, posing controversial arguments about the role of heresy in the nation's downfall while calling for a revival of traditional Christian practices.

Traces the arc of American religious discrimination, revealing a disturbing pattern of religious intolerance, from colonial anti-Quaker sentiment and Judaism to today's Muslins, Sikhs, and other religious groups under fire.