The Radical Reformation and the Making of Modern Europe

Download or read book The Radical Reformation and the Making of Modern Europe written by Mario Biagioni and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Radical Reformation and the Making of Modern Europe, Mario Biagioni presents an account of the lives and thoughts of some radical reformers of the sixteenth century (Bernardino Ochino, Francesco Pucci, Fausto Sozzini, and Christian Francken), showing that the Radical Reformation was not merely a subplot of heretical history within the larger narrative of the Magisterial Reformation. Religious radicalism was primarily an extraordinary laboratory of ideas, which played a pivotal role in the rise of modern Europe: it influenced the intellectual process leading to the cultural revolution of the Enlightenment. Secularism, toleration, and rationalism ― three basic principles of Western civilization ― are part of its cultural heritage.