Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our World

Why Martin Luther and the Reformation still matter—a profound examination of how both the man and the movement continue to shape the world today

Why should we care about Martin Luther five hundred years after his 95 Theses kicked off the Reformation? According to Brad Gregory, a renowned historian and professor of European history at the University of Notre Dame, Luther’s intentions were far from starting a revolution, dividing the Catholic Church, and forever changing Western Civilization. Yet the actions of this deeply medieval man ended up profoundly shaping our modern world, in ways Luther didn’t intend and nor could have foreseen.

In Rebel in the Ranks, Gregory shows us how this is so, beginning with Luther’s inadvertent role in starting the Reformation and the epochal changes that followed in its wake. While recasting the portrait of Luther as a deliberate revolutionary, Gregory describes the cultural, political, and intellectual trends that informed him and helped give rise to the Reformation, which led to conflicting interpretations of the Bible, as well as the rise of competing churches, political conflicts, and social upheavals across Europe. Over the next five hundred years these conflicts eventually contributed to further epochal changes—from the Enlightenment and self-determination to moral relativism and modern capitalism, and in a cruel twist to Luther’s legacy, the freedom of every man and woman to practice no religion at all.

With the scholarship of a world-class historian and the keen eyes of novelist, Gregory brings Martin Luther and the Reformation to life to explain how events that transpired five centuries ago still resonate—and define us—today.