Dr. Gregory’s book continues to attract attention (as it should):
The current First Things unfurls Ephraim Radner’s hard-hitting critique of Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation, entitled The Reformation Wrongly Blamed (subscription required). A different Protestant response to Gregory’s book comes by way of the evangelical historian Mark Noll. Noll disagrees with Gregory’s distribution of blame for secularism on the Reformation. However, Noll agrees with Gregory’s point of historical departure: The suggestion that the univocal metaphysics of John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham’s nominalism were profoundly harmful, and did much to put the young Luther in the unenviable state that precipitated (thanks in part to Luther’s disruption of episcopal income streams) the tragedy of the Reformation. The details of Noll’s compelling read can be enjoyed, along with vindicating remarks of the esteemed medievalist Rachel Fulton Brown, thanks to the video generously provided here by the Lumen Christi Institute at the University of Chicago.
