Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany Anabaptism and Lutheranism, 1525-1585

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief changes how we think about the Protestant Reformation in Germany in the sixteenth century. It examines the responses of ordinary men and women in central Germany who chose to associate themselves with the radical movement of the Anabaptists, groups who rejected infant baptism and adopted adult baptism. Instead of focusing simply on theological ideas and intellectuals, it mines archival material which has never before beenexamined and adopts novel approaches to dissect the emotional and individual responses to religious changes brought about by Martin Luther's reformation. Rejecting infant baptism, refusing to attend theEucharist, or abandoning marriages were all dangerous choices in early modern Germany. But this study explains how Anabaptists came to make such decisions as they faced the challenges of religious reform, and in so doing it paints a newly dynamic picture of the German Reformation.