Werner Packull delineates more clearly than any previous scholar the theological and spiritual differences between South German and Swiss Anabaptists. He examines thoroughly the dominant medieval mystical influence in the thought of Denck and Hut and the latter's immediate South German Anabaptist followers. Indeed, Packull decides that South German Anabaptism derives more from medieval mysticism than from the Reformation. Packull is convincing in his demonstration of this thesis because of his meticulous care in reading the primary sources and because he examines and refutes the arguments of those who would place the Protestant influence as the primary one. He carefully isolates and explains particular ideas of the medieval mystics and demonstrates their influence on Denck and Hut. Packull expands and elaborates the earlier suggestions of Kiwiet and Williams, both of whom postulated a discrete Anabaptism in South Germany as against that of Switzerland. He draws on the more recent and still unpublished work of Gottfried Seebass, especially on Seebass' selection of writings which he ascribes to Hut. Packull's second major thesis is that the earliest form of South German Anabaptism was transitional both sociologically and theologically. He demonstrates that there were indeed strains of Anabaptism which were not as clearly biblicist in emphasis as the one in Zurich. Packull's work makes the phenomenon of early Anabaptism more complex, less uniform, but hi252*.00storically more accurate, more in line with the realities of the religious ferment of the 1520s among German-speaking people.

A detatailed and well written account of this group of Anabaptists. The oldest and largest communal society in North America, the Hutterites—Anabaptists of German origin, like the Amish, Mennonites, and Brethren—have long been the subject of scholarly study and popular curiosity. Werner Packull tells the comprehensive story of the Hutterite beginnings in their original homelands—particularly in Tyrol and Moravia—and discovers important relationships among early Anabaptist sects.

This handbook of Anabaptism and Spiritualism provides an informative survey of recent scholarship on the Radical Reformation, from the 1520s to the end of the eighteenth century. Each chapter offers a narrative summary that engages current research and suggests directions for future study.

During the sixteenth century, many Reformers echoed Erasmus's claim that the Scriptures were clear, could be understood by even the lowliest servant, and should be translated into the vernacular and placed in the hands of all people. People did not require the magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church to correctly interpret the meaning of the Scriptures. However, within a few short years, the leaders of the Magisterial Reformers, Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli, had created their own Protestant versions of the magisterium. This work traces how the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture found expression in the writings of Balthasar Hubmaier, admirer of Erasmus and Luther, and associate of Zwingli. As Hubmaier engaged in theological debate with opponents, onetime friends, and other Anabaptists, he sought to clarify his understanding of this critical reformation doctrine. Chronologically tracing the development of Hubmaier's hermeneutic as he interacted with Erasmus, Luther, Zwingli, and Hans Denck provides a useful means of more accurately understanding his place in the matrix of the sixteenth-century Reformations.

This volume studies Reformation-Era theology by comparing how various denominations formulated and treated topics, thus encouraging ecumenical dialogue. It will remain the definitive place for teachers and students of theology to begin any further study into the origins and formulation of their denomination's teachings during this period.