John Wyclif
New Perspectives on an Old Controversy
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2021
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Publisher's Description
John Wyclif has been a controversial figure since his own time, often dividing opinion between devoted followers and intransigent opponents. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there was already a developing mythos about him, and he was variously used as a symbol of heretical depravity or of valorous defense of the gospel. The Reformation calcified opinions, and the two subsequent centuries did not see much development. The nineteenth century marked the beginning of important changes in scholarly opinion, with confessional approaches weakening and giving way to greater objectivity. This trend was strengthened by the emergence of a professional class of historians around the turn of the twentieth century, but the established confessional biases were not quickly done away with until the postwar period. Today, confessional mythmaking is gone and the goal is no longer to show why one particular branch of Christianity is correct, but to present as accurate a picture as possible of the past. As the concerns of the twentieth century give way to those of the twenty-first, it is encouraging that there are still new things to be learned about the past, new ways of seeing and engaging, even with figures so well studied as Wyclif.
Endorsements (3)
“Sean Otto’s description of John Wyclif’s reputation as it developed from his death to the present tells a fascinating story. As scholars have freed Christian history from confessional partisanship, Wyclif’s life and thought have ceased to be defined by sectarian ideals. Now they have become the subject of a broad range of historical studies, to which Otto’s study provides a useful and interesting historiographic guide.”
“In this engaging book, Sean Otto astutely explains why John Wyclif has been one of the most divisive figures of Christian history. The historical Wyclif, a medieval theologian who dabbled in fourteenth-century politics, might interest rather few, but Otto brings us the Wyclif who for over half a millennium was the hero of evangelical Protestants and the bane of Roman Catholic controversialists.”
“In this succinct, focused study, Otto details how the confessional traditions have led to different understandings of Wyclif, how recent scholars have begun to overcome this divide, and calls for a contextual understanding of this important medieval theologian and his work. Both novices and experts will benefit from this book.”
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