
Miracles and the Protestant Imagination
The Evangelical Wonder Book in Reformation Germany
Philip M. Soergel(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 16. February 2012
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-19-984466-1 (ISBN)
Description
The wonder book was a new genre that appeared in the troubled years following Luther's death in 1546 and the outbreak of religious wars at mid century. Originally conceived as a kind of apocalyptic text intended to interpret the ''signs of the times'' during this uncertain period, these books were filled with accounts of celestial visions, comets, natural disasters, monstrous births, and other seeming signs and portents, events in which the hand of God was revealed. As the genre developed, Philip Soergel shows, its authors, mostly Lutheran divines, came increasingly to delve into the theology of miracles and the supernatural. Writing for a mostly clerical audience, they hoped to encourage the broad revival of a sense of divine presence in everyday life. Thus, in contrast to generations of scholars who have assumed that the Reformation represented a vital step on the way to the ''disenchantment of the world,'' Soergel's groundbreaking study reveals that German evangelicals were themselves active enchanters.
Reviews / Votes
Miracles and the Protestant Imagination is an outstanding book, a work of profound and wide-ranging erudition. The argument is presented with clarity and economy. * John L. Flood, Times Literary Supplement *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
586 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-984466-1 (9780199844661)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Philip M. Soergel
Miracles and the Protestant Imagination
The Evangelical Wonder Book in Reformation Germany
E-Book
02/2012
1st Edition
OUP USA
€49.99
Available for download
Person
Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland.
Author
Associate Professor of HistoryAssociate Professor of History, University of Maryland
Content
Chapter One: The Appropriation of Wonders in Sixteenth-Century Germany ; Chapter Two: Luther on Miracles ; Chapter Three: Nature and the "Signs of the End" in Job Fincel's Wonder Signs ; Chapter Four: Caspar Goltwurm on the Rhetoric of Natural Wonders ; Chapter Five: The Polemics of Depravity in the Wonder Books of Christoph Irenaeus ; Chapter Six: Enduring Models and Changing Tastes at Century's End ; Index