Building the Church of England

Reviews / Votes

"In this clear and thought-provoking study, Stephen Tong moves on from recent historiography to illuminate how the first untrammelled phase of the Protestant Reformation under Edward VI viewed itself and intended to change the Church of England. His refreshingly novel perspective is to reject hindsight, and to avoid viewing the Edwardian Church through the lens of later Elizabethan Puritan/conformist conflict."


Diarmaid N.J. MacCulloch, Saint Cross College and Campion Hall, Oxford







Building the Church provides a stimulating new perspective on the short-lived Edwardian Reformation. Deftly weaving together the histories of liturgy, theology and ecclesiastical politics, this excellent book illuminates the hidden complexities and the creative dynamism of the evangelical movement and the institution it forged. Peering behind the pious myths that have accumulated around the Edwardian church and prayer book in succeeding centuries, Stephen Tong helps us to better understand both in their own terms. In the process, he successfully recasts our understanding of the significance of the mid-Tudor period in the longer story of the evolution of English Protestantism. A critical intervention in the contested debates about its early history, his book will be vital reading for students and scholars of the Reformation in Britain and further afield.


Alexandra Walsham, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge