SOURCE: "Legacies of the Reformations," in The European Reformations, Blackwell Publishers, 1996, pp. 357-81.

In the essay that follows, Lindberg argues that the ideals of the Protestant Reformation introduced a cultural and religious pluralism that had a major impact on the social and political history of Europe.

Listening from the distance of centuries across the death chasms and howling kingdoms of decay, it is not easy to catch everything.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

One of the consequences of the Reformations in general and the council of Trent in particular was the splintering of western Christendom. Some of the legacies of this fragmentation of the medieval corpus Christianum were almost immediately apparent with, for example, the rise of confessionalization. while the catalytic action of others, such as theological pluralism, were long-term influences. In one way or another, however, the legacies of the Reformations have affected every aspect of modern life and...