In this video, Brad Littlejohn introduces the too often forgotten story of the English Reformation, and corrects common misunderstandings of Henry VIII and his wives, Queen Elizabeth, and the rise of Puritanism. He also suggests lessons that this most tumultuous of Protestant Reformations might hold for the church in our own time.
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Video Questions
0:30: Importance of remembering the English Reformation.
1:00: Why popular narratives of the English Reformation as merely a political event for the first few decades are misleading.
2:00: Why Henry VIII is a more complicated (and more sympathetic) character than usually recognized.
4:10: How the English Reformation shifts in a more authentically Protestant direction after Henry’s death.
5:50: Does the English Reformation fail to become fully reformed? What goes wrong?
6:50: Elizabeth’s church as doctrinally Protestant but outwardly maintaining a lot of continuity with the medieval church.
7:30: The Puritan demand for visible reformation—understanding what it was and what it wasn’t.
8:10: What is the contemporary relevance of this era of Reformation history?