The Reformation was about ideas and power, but it was also about real human lives. Alec Ryrie provides the first comprehensive account of what it actually meant to live a Protestant life in England and Scotland between 1530 and 1640, drawing on a rich mixture of contemporary devotional works, sermons, diaries, biographies, and autobiographies to uncover the lived experience of early modern Protestantism.
Beginning from the surprisingly urgent, multifaceted emotions of Protestantism, Ryrie explores practices of prayer, of family and public worship, and of reading and writing, tracking them through the life course from childhood through conversion and vocation to the deathbed. He examines what Protestant piety drew from its Catholic predecessors and contemporaries, and grounds that piety in material realities such as posture, food, and tears.
This perspective shows us what it meant to be Protestant in the British Reformations: a meeting of intensity (a religion which sought authentic feeling above all, and which dreaded hypocrisy and hard-heartedness) with dynamism (a progressive religion, relentlessly pursuing sanctification and dreading idleness). That combination, for good or ill, gave the Protestant experience its particular quality of restless, creative zeal.
The Protestant devotional experience also shows us that this was a broad-based religion: for all the differences across time, between two countries, between men and women, and between puritans and conformists, this was recognisably a unified culture, in which common experiences and practices cut across supposed divides. Alec Ryrie shows us Protestantism, not as the preachers on all sides imagined it, but as it was really lived.
Industry Reviews
...this is an immensely rewarding book...No book has ever brought early modern Protestantism to life so vividly, so eloquently and so movingly. * The Times Literary Supplement *
Shifting the gaze from doctrine to devotion, Alec Ryrie one of the foremost historians of Britains Reformations presents us with a staggering piece of scholarship for which the term essential reading is redundant. * Adam Morton, Church Times *
An important book that reflects a change of register and a shift in the tempo of Reformation studies ... a book full of riches, elegantly writter, alive with insight, quiet erudition and compassionate humour ... Being Protestant in Reformation Britain has brought to life a whole way of being. Its subjects might even feel that for once someone has done justice to their fervently held convictions and the meaning of their lives. * Lucy Wooding, Times Higher Education *
Ryrie's book represents a monumental achievement. * Church of England Newspaper *
This is a book of considerable achievement and many delights; a meticulously researched work, which provides a deep insight into the religious community in Britain from the early years of the Reformation up to the beginning of the English Civil War ... This is an important, landmark book in Reformation studies. * Anne Dillon, The Tablet *
lively and readable... It sketches an evocative, richly textured and sympathetic portrait of the lived experience of people who embraced the reformed religion in sixteenth- and seventeenthcentury Britain, providing us with many fresh insights into a religious culture whose hallmark was a restless intensity and dynamism designed to fend off hypocrisy, stagnation and idleness. * Alexandra Walsham, English Historical Review, *
This is an extremely enjoyable book and an important one. Throughout, Ryrie is engaging, employing an easy conversational tone and supplying rich detail. As a result, this work should be just as accessible to students interested in religious history as it is to experts in the field. It will be valuable in teaching upper-level undergraduate courses and in graduate courses, and should be included on the reading lists of anyone wishing to specialize in early modern European religious history. * Susan M. Cogan, Huntington Library Quarterly *
I unhesitatingly welcome this book ... I recommend [it] to all those who wish to understand how the astonishing dynamism of Protestantism influenced the day to day living of men, women, and children in this island. * Alan Argent, Congregational History Society *
This is a compelling book ... It leads us to empathise with the intensity with which his protagonists experienced their religion; to sympathise with their restless quest for assurance; and to return with new interest to old questions about the importance of this dynamic faith in reshaping the early modern world. * Felicity Heal, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *
This book provides a comprehensive and incisive account of what it meant to lead a Protestant life in the century after the break with Rome ... Ryrie's work will certainly establish its position as a highly significant contribution to Reformation studies; this is a physically and intellectually substantial volume, constructed around a careful dialogue with a range of voices, which answers that critical question of how 'being Protestant' was a significant part of the making of the Reformation. * Helen Parish, History *
