"Soergel's beautifully written study of sixteenth-century Lutheran wonder books fills a huge gap in the English-language literature. Here an accomplished scholar guides us through these massive collections of freakish phenomena, illuminating their theological and broader cultural contexts. Few books have done more to illuminate the truth that Luther's Reformation brought no sudden 'disenchantment of the world,' for Soergel uncovers a virtual obsession with the ways in which God's wrath over sin was manifest in nature."--Robin B. Barnes, Professor of History, Davidson College
"In this ground-breaking study of wonder books and marvellous broadsides, Philip Soergel lucidly maps out attitudes towards miracles developed by Luther and his followers. From conjoined twins to parhelia and bearded grapes, unusual occurrences in nature were signs that prompted reflections on sin and vice, Law and Gospel, God's ire and benevolence. This is an original contribution to our understanding of the enduring significance of nature and its miracles in early-modern Protestant worldviews."--Sachiko Kusukawa, Fellow in the History and Philosophy of Science, Trinity College, Cambridge University
"In his nuanced and challenging reflections on the sixteenth-century publishing phenomenon known as 'wonder books,' Philip Soergel transcends the usual theological and polemical limitations on most scholarly discussions of early Lutheran thinking. Like the authors he analyzes, Soergel draws on broad familiarity with natural philosophy, astrology, history, classical literature, philology, and more. What at first might seem quaint or merely odd collections of random curiosities are brilliantly transformed to provide windows into the anxious imaginations of German Protestantism's earliest theologians. The author's deep erudition is evident on every page--always in crisp, jargon-free prose--and his thesis stands out as bold, insightful, and highly persuasive."--Joel F. Harrington, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
"Soergel succeeds admirably in demonstrating that the pessimism of Lutheran pastors was not the universal experience of sixteenthcentury men and women, but a theologically conditioned response underpinning Luther's fundamental belief that mankind was helpless before the majesty of God...
Miracles and the Protestant Imagination is an outstanding book, a work of profound and wide-ranging erudition. The argument is presented with clarity and economy."--
Times Literary Supplement"Philip Soergel's fascinating book is the most detailed study to date of the sixteenth-century wonder or miracle book in its Northern German, evangelical form... The book is groundbreaking in its fine-grained discussion of
the theological debates and concepts underpinning these publications. It is a substantial
addition to the scholarship of recent years demanding that scholars rethink older
paradigms about the disenchantment of the world, and forms a compelling example of
the strengths of the cultural turn in early modern religious history." --
Renaissance Quarterly
