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The Literary Culture of the Reformation examines the place of literature in the Reformation, considering both how arguments about biblical meaning and literary interpretation influenced the new theology, and how developments in theology in turn influence
d literary practices. Part One focuses on Northern Europe, reconsidering the relationship between Renaissance humanism (especially Erasmus) and religious ideas (especially Luther). Parts Two and Three examine Tudor and early Stuart England. Part Two desc
ribes the rise of vernacular theology and protestant culture in relation to fundamental changes in the understanding of the English language. Part Three studies English religious poetry (including Donne, Herbert, and in an Epilogue, Milton) in the wake o
f these changes. Bringing together genres and styles of writing which are normally kept apart (poems, sermons, treatises, commentaries) Brian Cummings offers a major re-evaluation of the literary production of this intensely verbal and controversial peri
od. `...a groundbreaking and immensely important book. Cummings links an impressive knowledge of sixteenth-century theology and humanist culture to a penetrating analysis of linguistic issues and problems to produce literary criticism of the highest
order.' Times Literary Supplement