University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Faculty Publications, Department of History
History, Department of
2013
Book Review of Schubert, Täufertum und Kabbalah.
Augustin Bader und die Grenzen der Radikalen
Reformation
Stephen G. Burnett
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]
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Burnett, Stephen G., "Book Review of Schubert, Täufertum und Kabbalah. Augustin Bader und die Grenzen der Radikalen Reformation"
(2013). Faculty Publications, Department of History. 151.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/151
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical
History
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Täufertum und Kabbalah. Augustin Bader und die
Grenzen der Radikalen Reformation. By
Schubert. (Quellen und Forschungen zur
Reformationsgeschichte, 81.) Pp. 407 incl. 16 ills.
Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008. €58.
978 3 579 05372 1
Stephen G. Burnett
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History / Volume 64 / Issue 01 / January 2013, pp 165 - 166
DOI: 10.1017/S0022046912002461, Published online: 07 January 2013
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022046912002461
How to cite this article:
Stephen G. Burnett (2013). The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 64, pp 165-166
doi:10.1017/S0022046912002461
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REVIEWS

Early French reform. The theology and spirituality of Guillame Farel. By Jason Zuidema
and Theodore van Raalte. (St Andrews Studies in Reformation History.) Pp.
viii + . Farnham–Burlington, VT: Ashgate, . £.     
JEH () ; doi:./SX
Too often Guillaume Farel (–) has been depicted as ‘just’ the older
colleague of John Calvin and as a man with a not too easy character. The authors of
The this
Journal
of Ecclesiastical
History
/ Volume
64 / Issue
01 / January
book adjust
this picture of this
important
first-generation
French-speaking
Reformer
evidence
for this by supplying translations of a number of
2013,
pp 165and
- add
166;theDOI:
10.1017/S0022046912002461
Farel’s key
texts. The book
is dividedPress.
into twoUsed
parts. by
Thepermission.
first describes Farel’s life
Copyright
Cambridge
University
and his early thought in four chapters: ‘Guillaume Farel in early French reform’;
‘Farel’s Summaire: theology in early French reform’; ‘Farel’s upward spirituality:
leading in prayer’; and ‘Farel’s upward spirituality: unceasing prayer: (–
)’. Educated in Paris, Farel slowly began to question Catholic orthodoxy, and
by the s was an active Protestant preacher, resulting in his exile to Switzerland.
After having convinced the Genevans that they should side with the Reformation,
he in  persuaded John Calvin to stay and put the decision to reform into
practice. The second part of the book contains translations of key texts from Farel’s
works: The Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed (); Summary and brief exposition
(/); ‘The reason for which this work was written and had to be revised and
why it was lengthened’ (appended to the  edition of the Summaire); and
Liturgical practices and forms (). This means that Zuidema and Van Raalte’s
book brings us some of the first full-length translations of Farel’s work in English.
The second part of the book, in particular, is a real contribution to research and
teaching, but the volume as a whole contributes to a better understanding of the
Reformation in French-speaking Switzerland.
THE NETHERLANDS
HERMAN J. SELDERHUIS
Täufertum und Kabbalah. Augustin Bader und die Grenzen der Radikalen Reformation. By
Anselm Schubert. (Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte,
.) Pp.  incl.  ills. Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, . E.
    
JEH () ; doi:./S
August Bader has traditionally been considered one of the most bizarre figures of
the Radical Reformation, but Schubert argues that his messianic consciousness is
an understandable outgrowth of both the apocalyptic thought of his teacher Hans
Hut and also Jewish Kabbalistic thought. After experiencing several visions, Bader
became convinced that he was a prophet and ultimately, in , the Messiah
(p. ). He had special clothing and regalia of gold made to befit his status, which
his accusers took to mean that he was a would-be political rebel as well as a heretic
(p. ). Using the interrogation records from Bader’s trial in , the author
provides a reasonably coherent picture of his mental world. Where this book
differs from many works on the Radical Reformation is in its stress on the
importance of Christian Hebraism as a mediator of Jewish thought, and also how
the intellectual exchanges between Christians and Jews could have an impact on
Christian thought. Bader’s messianic self-understanding grew primarily out of
Reuchlin’s De arte cabalistica (), but also may have benefited from Paul Ricius’

JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Portae lucis () and Sebastian Münster’s first printing of Christiani hominis cum
Judaeo . . . colloquium (). Bader’s thought may also have been affected by
personal contacts with Jews, or the contacts of his follower Oswald Leber. For
example, he identified  as the end of the world, apparently following
Abraham ben Eliezer ha-Levi’s reckoning (p. ). When Bader was brought to
trial, his ideas not only made the authorities suspicious that he had judaized, but
they also suspected that Swabian Jews were complicit in Bader’s guilt. Josel of
Rosheim intervened successfully on their behalf and prevented Bader’s indictment
from affecting them as well (pp. –). Schubert’s book will interest scholars of
both Reformation and Jewish history.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
STEPHEN G. BURNETT
Reforming the north. The kingdoms and churches of Scandinavia, –. By James
L. Larson. Pp. xv +  incl.  maps. New York–Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, . £.     
JEH () ; doi:./SX
The introduction of the Reformation resulted in the establishment of the two
largest and most ardent Lutheran countries in northern Europe, the kingdoms of
Denmark-Norway and Sweden-Finland. In Reforming the north James Larson gives a
detailed account of the developments leading up to and following the two crucial
events in the history of the Scandinavian Reformation: the radical reduction of
episcopal power and the secularisation of ecclesiastical estates carried out by the
Swedish king Gustav Vasa in  and the Danish king Christian III in . Both
events were closely connected to the breakdown of the political union between
Denmark, Norway and Sweden which had been established in  and had made
the Danish king lord of all three kingdoms. It is therefore appropriate that Larson
begins his narrative in  with the event that triggered off this breakdown: the
military campaign of the Danish king Christian II against his ‘disobedient subjects’
in Sweden, which culminated in the horrible Bloodbath of Stockholm.
‘Lord of the northern world’ is the title of the first part of Larson’s book, dealing
with the reign of Christian II from his accession in  until he was forced to leave
his realms in . In Sweden it was a popular insurrection led by Gustav Vasa that
removed Christian II from power, while in Denmark it was a conspiracy between
leading aristocrats and the king’s uncle, Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein. As
new rulers these two men are the main figures in the second part of the book,
‘Successors’, dealing with the years from  to . In this period Lutheran
ideas began to penetrate both Denmark and Sweden, coming in through channels
such as German merchants trading in the countries, Nordic students visiting
universities in northern Germany, and the spreading of religious literature.
Included were tracts by Luther, but also a Danish translation of the New
Testament, made by followers of Christian II in his exile in the Netherlands. The
translation was smuggled into Denmark and spread together with propaganda for
the return of the king who had become a devoted adherent of Luther after having
met the reformer in Wittenberg.
In  the exiled king succeeded in financing an army with which he landed
in Norway. The southern part of the country recognised him as king, but in the