Social gospel and the Reformation

Little is known about the German Peasant's War in the christian community apart from Luther's fulminations about murdering, thieving peasants. It might come as a surprise to discover that the program of the peasant movements for reform were profoundly shaped by what we might now term a social gospel and an evangelically informed social and political critique.

James M Stayer provides a great introduction to the historiography of the German Peasant's War and the connections to the Anabaptist movement and its understanding of the community of goods.

This is an important historical moment that deserves to be better known by theologians. the historians have done us proud with their painstaking research in opening up fresh perspectives on this critical moment in European history.