Protestants: The Radicals Who Made the Modern World

On the 500th anniversary of Luther’s rebellion, this spectacular global history traces the revolutionary faith that shaped the modern world. Five hundred years ago Protestant Christianity began with one stubborn monk – today, it includes a billion people across the globe. The upheaval Martin Luther triggered inspired one of the most creative and destructive movements in human history. Protestants is the story of the men and women who made and remade this quarrelsome faith by demanding alarming new freedoms and experimenting in new systems of government. Inspired by their newly accessible Bibles, they transformed their inner lives, a transformation that spilled over into social upheavals and political revolutions. Alec Ryrie’s dazzling history explores how its restless energy made and is still making the modern world. In Protestants, Alec Ryrie masterfully narrates the top events that led to the renaissance of a faith, a revolution that still shapes the world. The best part of the book is how it delves into the transformation of inner lives, a change that led to social upheavals and political revolutions. For fans of Tom Holland (The Rest is History), Christopher Watkin (Michel Serres), Jonathan Haidt (The Righteous Mind), Peter Ackroyd (Innovation), and Eleanor Parker (Winters in the World).