Thomas Muntzer

A masterly new biography of Thomas Muntzer by a leading historian of the revolutionary Reformation movements. Controversial and complex, without an understanding of Thomas Muntzer it is impossible to gain a full understanding of the Reformation. Hitherto Muntzer has been imperfectly understood. He has often been characterized simply as an extremist: some have seen him as a theologian steeped in mystic piety, others as a rabid apocalyptic, or a relentless antagonist of Martin Luther, or an intrepid revolutionary. He has been deprecated as a restless fanatic and utopian; and just as often honoured as a selfless fighter for truth and justice. Professor Goertz has found the key to understanding the many controversial aspects of Muntzer's life in Muntzer's extraordinary ability to relate social conflicts with theological thinking, in a world where changing medieval traditions took on profound spiritual dimensions, created new social conflicts, and ultimately revolutionized the social and spiritual lives of ordinary people. Goertz shows how Muntzer was inseparably apocalyptic mystic and revolutionary.