Who or what is a Catholic? Is it the entire church or only the Western part of it? Must a Catholic be loyal to the pope, or could she defend the faith against the pope? Can a Protestant be Catholic? And does the meaning of the word "Catholic" even matter?

Diarmaid MacCulloch replies that in early modern Europe, the meaning of the word was central to the Reformation—and, he maintains, Reformation history is essential to European and world history. He goes so far as to claim that it's impossible to comprehend the modern world without knowing the 16th-century roots of divisions between Protestants and Catholics. In particular, he provocatively contends, the Reformation background is essential to grasp the distinctive character of the United States. He identifies Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism as the dominant influence on American culture, explaining American religiosity as the fruit of Reformed Christian faith that was transplanted from the edges of the British Isles to North America.

MacCulloch covers the familiar ground of survey texts with ease and grace, offering the reader a well-paced and broad introduction. But he also follows the story well beyond the bounds of the Reformation narrowly construed, extending the narrative into Eastern Europe, Catholic renewal, and the 17th century. He offers lively sketches of the major characters en route, describing Martin Luther as the guarantor of a good night out on the town but declining to say the same of "buttoned-up" John Calvin. He also does a fine job untangling complicated theology, particularly regarding the Eucharist. It takes an exceptionally talented historian to clarify why Protestant church unity floundered on whether the host is broken (Reformed) or elevated (Lutheran) without getting bogged down in pages of explanation. (A useful touch for the novice Reformation student is an appendix with the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Hail Mary.)

To demonstrate the church's ubiquity in 1500, MacCulloch notes that of the three most mechanically complex machines that most people would see in their lives—the pipe organ, the clock, and the windmill—two were only found in churches. MacCulloch often emphasizes the centrality of hymnody, especially the Genevan Psalter, for giving words to the laity's faith. Such was the power and appeal of the sung word, that French Catholics cut out the tongues of Reformed Protestants before they were burnt at the stake so that the words of the Psalter would not ring out from the flames.

Many stalwart Catholic countries in Eastern Europe became Protestant or harbored substantial Protestant movements in the 16th century, only to be re-Catholicized in the 17th. MacCulloch describes this energetic renewal in detail, rightly emphasizing that not only Protestants but also Catholics defined doctrine, sent missionaries, and built schools in the 16th and 17th centuries. An equally significant expansion of the standard Reformation text is MacCulloch's decision to include the 17th century. He incorporates not only the horrific Thirty Years' War but also the expansion of the Portuguese, Spanish, and English empires into the Americas.

Ultimately, religious change came to every country in Europe. In order to cover the necessary ground, MacCulloch has to switch rapidly from one area to the next. Although the transitions often work well, at times the book has the feel of a whirlwind European bus tour: if you blink, you might miss the border and suddenly find yourself in a different country. This is a small price to pay, however, for a tour that includes all of Europe west of Russia and not just Protestant nations.

MacCulloch also includes a section on social history that could be called "the difference the Reformation made in everyday life." He covers the emergence of new funeral rites for Protestants, the importance of the book in Protestant Europe, the survival of folk beliefs in all parts of Europe, and a study of sexual ethics. MacCulloch sees high ages at first marriage and low rates of bastardy as an argument for lots of non-procreative sexual activity. He concedes that some could have followed church teaching and been chaste, but thinks it more likely that other activities, including "the discreet practice of homosexuality," substituted for procreative sex. He argues that attitudes on homosexuality (mostly condemnations of it) are a "useful litmus test of the nature of attitudes towards sexuality generally." With prohibitions on homosexuality foremost in mind, he finds 16th- and 17th-century Christian teachings on sexuality wanting modern appreciations of sexual need. For all of MacCulloch's nuanced treatment of theological debates and other questions unfamiliar to the modern world, he seems keen to elide differences in sexual ethics between the modern world and the Reformation era.

Overall MacCulloch seems convinced that the Reformation is still quite close to us. Remarks designed to demonstrate the nearness of the Reformation, however, sometimes obstruct the flow of the narrative. Offhand comments that compare medieval friars to contemporary professors or religious riots in Paris to violence in Mostar, Belfast, or Rwanda do little to show that the subjects are related. The real danger in drawing contemporary analogies, however, is not that they distract but that they can create dangerous reductions. Luther's later publications on Jews hardly model Christian charity, but stating that his "writing of 1543 is a blueprint for the Nazis' Kristallnacht of 1938" ignores the almost 400 years of change between Luther and Hitler.

MacCulloch's attempts to tie the story of the Reformation to the present do bring us to the end of the road: the importance of the Reformation for understanding American religious practice. He credits the high rate of religious observance in America to the influence of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. Ulster Presbyterians were descended from Scottish Protestants, who had been settled in northern Ireland by the English crown in an attempt to Protestantize Ireland. When their offspring came to North America in the 18th century, they brought with them a Reformed theology that was indebted to Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. MacCulloch traces American revivalism to holy fairs that Presbyterians held in Scotland and Ireland whenever they celebrated the Eucharist, noting that "American life is fired by a continuing energy of Protestant religious practice derived from the sixteenth century." While declining religious adherence in Europe may have dampened the importance of the Reformation there, MacCulloch sees the continued impact of European reforms in Wittenberg (Wisconsin), Geneva (Nebraska), Belfast (Maine), and Amsterdam (New York).

MacCulloch's willingness to assign a preeminent role in American religious and cultural history to Ulster Presbyterians has its own dangers of reductionism; it ignores the vitality of American Catholicism and the endurance of African American Christianity, as well as the distinctives of American church-state relations. In the midst of the 16th and 17th centuries, however, MacCulloch has a surer touch. His masterful outline of the subject demonstrates a fine ear for the debates and characters of the time. The elegance of the book, its lively and clear prose, suggest that what we mean when we say "Catholic" continues to matter a great deal.

Mary Noll Venables recently received her Ph.D. in Early Modern European History from Yale University and is now living in Ireland.

Copyright © 2004 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.
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