The Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was an important time in history, not only for the history of the Christian Church, but for the history of the world. As a result of the work of faithful, godly men and women, there was a return to biblical theology. People came to understand that we are saved by grace through faith. Feudalism ended. There were wars for decades over the future of the Church. Out of these wars, denominations arose. We saw the rise of new theology and doctrine that still finds a home in sects of the Church today.
Our kids need to know what happened during the Reformation, and why.
In 2015, my book When Lightning Struck!: The Story of Martin Luther for middle and high school students published with Fortress Press. That was truly a dream come true for me, and it was a project I’d worked on for several years. I’ve been so blessed by your support and enthusiasm.
Thank you so much if you have purchased a copy, and shared the book with your children! I cannot tell you how much that means to me. You may remember that I wrote two guides to go with When Lightning Struck!: a Discussion Guide and a 12-week Martin Luther Study Guide.
Fortress Press also published Tim Dowley’s Atlas of the European Reformations this fall, and it’s an excellent overview of the Protestant Reformation and the resulting Catholic Reformation for grades 4-12. To help you fully utilize this resource in your home or school, I’ve written a Study Guide for the Atlas, and Fortress Press has given me permission to give it to Thinking Kids subscribers for free.
Atlas of the European Reformations by Tim Dowley
The Atlas of the European Reformations is valuable overview of the Reformation Age. There are four sections: Before the Reformation, Reformation, Catholic Reform and Counter-Reformation, and Early Modern Europe. Students get an overview of what led to the Reformations, what occurred during the Reformations, and what happened after.
Each of the 60 maps has a brief overview with it. The maps are fascinating, as they really communicate the scope of each topic being discussed. Students learn about important figures in the Reformation period, as well as movements, conflicts, and how the Reformations affected different nations.
The narrative is careful to avoid bias, and both the reform of the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation are covered. This is a great overview of the period, and unlike anything I’ve seen. I like the fact that the Atlas covers the Catholic reform and missions as well. Though we are not Catholic, I want my boys to understand that part of history.
Amazon: Atlas of the European Reformations
Christian Book: Atlas of the European Reformations
Free Reformation Study Guide
Subscribe here to receive your study guide:
- A brief overview of each section
- Discussion questions for each map
- Vocabulary
- Related literature by grade level (Grades 4 and up)
- Scripture to consider
Because this guide is meant to facilitate discussion and understanding as students learn about the European Reformations, no formal schedule has been included. You can work through the Atlas as it fits your schedule, and easily coordinate it with any history curriculum you are using.
The Reformation study guide is divided into four sections, as is the book. You’ll find an overview of each section of history.
Each of the 60 maps and overviews has a set of discussion questions for students to consider, as well as related vocabulary definitions in language students can understand. You’ll also find fine art related to the period on the discussion pages throughout. History is the perfect time to study art, so the pieces and the artists are all clearly identified on the same page as the artwork.
The related literature lists contain excellent works that will deepen your student’s understanding of the time period. None of the books are required (indeed, there are too many listed to use them all), and many can be located at your local library, though each would make an excellent addition to your home or church library. Further, you will find periodic “Scripture to Consider” sections, with a scripture reference and discussion questions.
The Story of Martin Luther
Teach your teens about Martin Luther and the Reformation in an exciting, new way with When Lightning Struck!: The Story of Martin Luther!
Martin Luther (1483-1546) is often referred to as “The Father of the Reformation”. Born during a time of superstition, tradition, and spiritual corruption, Luther gave up a lucrative career as a lawyer to become a monk in the Roman Catholic Church–a path he felt would certainly lead to salvation.
As Luther’s understanding of the spiritual corruption within the Church grew, and he despaired of true salvation, Luther (now a scholar and priest) sought the Bible for answers. Following his discovery of the true gospel in Scripture, Luther began to preach spiritual freedom to his congregation, and to teach biblical (rather than philosophical) theology at the University of Wittenberg.
It was on October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther penned his Ninety-Five Theses in Latin in response to the abusive indulgence sales practices of the monk Johann Tetzel in a nearby town. Luther nailed the Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, the scholarly bulletin board of his day, and mailed a copy to the Archbishop of Mainz. Luther hoped to start a scholarly debate about the practice of selling salvation through plenary indulgences. The response he received was greater–and more dangerous–than he imagined it would be.
Luther’s story is exciting. There are death defying moments, epic spiritual battles, narrow escapes, a kidnapping, revolution, and war. As the “Father of the Reformation”, Luther is a vital figure in Church history. His sacrifice and willingness to wage battle against the spiritual, religious, and political powers of his medieval world allowed Christians throughout time to embrace the truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as explained by Scripture alone once again. May all glory be to God alone!
Read portions of the first eight chapters of When Lightning Struck!:
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Susan Menzmer says
February 8, 2016 at 5:12 amThis sounds like a fantastic resource! Maps can help a child (and adults too!) put a historical happening into context so they can better understand that the historical happening was a REAL thing, that effected REAL people in their every day lives. Would absolutely love to win a copy of this book!
HillaryM says
February 8, 2016 at 5:17 amThis looks like a great resource to cover this part of church history more fully than we have before — and fill in my own gaps (we learn so much ‘teaching’ our children, don’t we?).
jenniferrusk says
February 8, 2016 at 5:32 amthis looks like a great resource for my children! Once again, THANKS!
Darcy says
February 8, 2016 at 5:42 amThe atlas will help my children better picture what happened as well as help my understanding.
Gabrielle says
February 8, 2016 at 5:42 amI love your resources, they enrich our studies at home with our children. Thank you!
vanderplaatsj says
February 8, 2016 at 5:45 amThis looks like a wonderful resource. I would enjoy using it with my children.
Kim C. says
February 8, 2016 at 6:04 amI think the atlas will help in showing my son why we believe what we believe.
Angela L says
February 8, 2016 at 6:06 amWhat an awesome resource! We are just about to reach the Reformation phase of history in our homeschool. My kids are facinated (and so am I) by seeing the hand of God on all the events of the past. As we study His wonderful works our hope and trust in His plans for our future is also increased. Thanks for offering this book!
KimberlySwanson says
February 8, 2016 at 6:21 amWhat a fabulous resource to help educate my children about such a pivotal point in history! I know we would enjoy it greatly!
Judith Martinez says
February 8, 2016 at 6:27 amThe power of visual aids like maps is so dramatic for my kids. They’ll spend hours poring over something like this and learn a ton of stuff with little effort on my part.
C says
February 8, 2016 at 6:42 amMy kids love maps and biographies/history. They’ll love this resource that combines the two.
Nichole says
February 8, 2016 at 6:51 amThis looks like a great resource. We love learning about history and seeing Gid’s hand in it all. We will be studying the reformation in the fall!
Suzanne says
February 8, 2016 at 7:14 amI love how its all put together thoughtfully and thoroughly. We are Lutherans and my children would benefit from this unit immensely. Thanks for the chance!
jgwatkins says
February 8, 2016 at 7:15 amLove the maps and pictures and I know your study guide will bring it all together beautifully! Thank you.
kaytlin says
February 8, 2016 at 7:28 amThanks for the chance to win. This looks like a great tool to have while teaching the children!
[email protected] says
February 8, 2016 at 7:40 amThis is cool and will be great for education tools for us (our church) or some of our church member’s are home school parent can use this educational tools.
I too can learn a lot from this too.
raleymail says
February 8, 2016 at 8:19 amThanks for sharing the resource!
Rachel Clark says
February 8, 2016 at 8:28 amMy son enjoyed reading When Lightening Struck. Thanks so much.
Faithfulmommy26 says
February 8, 2016 at 8:35 amLooking forward to this book – even if we don’t win it!
Rebekah M says
February 8, 2016 at 8:41 amI love the vivid colorful maps. This I think will help place the reformers in my children’s minds,. into the part of the world they lived in. I love how they have short simple explanations to, not lengthy pages of reading
Karolyn K. says
February 8, 2016 at 8:47 amThis looks great. It would make church history come alive for them. I like the discussion questions because that opens up communication between all family members. I like the maps too. It is great for the kids.
mh says
February 8, 2016 at 10:41 amA combination of maps and non-biased narrative is always helpful in putting history into context.
cvolle says
February 8, 2016 at 10:58 amWe are nearly to that time in history and this would be a great resource for my children! We LOVE history but have not used your resources before so this would be a great introduction.
Tiana says
February 8, 2016 at 11:06 amThis looks like a great resource, maps have been a huge help to my kids’ understanding!
L Sell says
February 8, 2016 at 1:12 pmWe are in need of anything to better our homeschool. I have 2 boys (10 years apart) and I’m at a loss on history. This would be a wonderful addition (something I would love to do for myself as well). Thank you for the opportunity!
Jone says
February 8, 2016 at 1:17 pmThis sounds like a great resource. The maps would be a big help. Also, having it all together in one place to see the flow of how the people and events from different areas tie together.
Janice D says
February 8, 2016 at 1:55 pmIt is always great to have a resource to visual where in the world an event(s) took place. I know they will learn a lot from it.
Angela says
February 8, 2016 at 2:37 pmThis looks GREAT!
Michelle G says
February 8, 2016 at 3:56 pmI’m always looking for ways to deepen my twins understanding of christian history, so we would be excited to win this!
Anna A. says
February 8, 2016 at 4:28 pmLooks like a good resource for me too because let’s face it, I know next to nothing about the reformation!
Ticia says
February 8, 2016 at 5:24 pmI forgot the question……
katie.hickman20 says
February 8, 2016 at 6:55 pmI think this would help everyone in my family!!
Megan says
February 8, 2016 at 8:01 pmThis looks interesting! We study history chronologically and will be doing the Reformation next year, so I’d love to take a look! 🙂
Leigh O says
February 8, 2016 at 8:16 pmI’m a reference section nerd and I’m drooling over that book! It would help by tying together all the details like an anchor and bringing them to life!
Marth says
February 8, 2016 at 8:48 pmThis atlas would help my children put places to the events and people of the Reformation. It would help to bring up questions and avenues for study which I had not thought of.
Martha says
February 8, 2016 at 8:50 pmMy keyboard is not working properly and somehow missed the last letter of my name.
setodd14 says
February 8, 2016 at 10:02 pmYay! We’re coming up on the Reformation in a few weeks in our history. I would love to add this to our current curriculum!
Judy G says
February 8, 2016 at 10:09 pmLooks like a great resource!
WolfPackMom says
February 9, 2016 at 12:20 amI have not found many good books on the Reformation at our local library, so I think that this book would be an asset to our homeschool.
Jennifer Mathesz says
February 9, 2016 at 7:23 amit will help us both since i’m not toocompetent on church history either 🙂
Jamie says
February 9, 2016 at 6:49 pmThe atlas will help us visualize things better regarding the Reformation. It looks very helpful and interesting.
Shawnda says
February 9, 2016 at 6:56 pmWow! This looks like such a good resource for Reformation studies. It’s one of those kind of resources that I would look forward to using so that I could learn along with the kids.
glkphineas says
February 10, 2016 at 6:14 amWe like the visual side of things. This would help see when things happened and how the ideas propagated.
Lauriejm says
February 10, 2016 at 2:18 pmLooks like a great resource! Thank you
[email protected] says
February 11, 2016 at 5:23 amWe try to study the reformation around October, but we’ve never done an in-depth study so this would be great!
MTkatrina says
February 12, 2016 at 8:10 amThe curriculum we are using touched briefly on the Reformation, but I would love to have something like this to make it really come alive.
Katherine Rhodes says
February 13, 2016 at 1:31 amThis looks like an excellent resource. Our family celebrates Reformation Day instead of Halloween. They love maps and this would really help them see where and how these events were happening.
SilverMoon says
February 14, 2016 at 7:47 amHow will Tim Dowley’s Atlas of the European Reformations help your students better understand Christian history?
I have had this book on my purchase for fall list for awhile. Thank you for the detailed review! I pray it will help make church history come just as alive and real as world history.
Erica Bancroft says
February 20, 2016 at 1:34 amOoo! Lots of bright colors to bring history to life.
This would be a very helpful resource for studying the Middle Ages, etc.
Thanks for reviewing some great materials.
Margaret D. says
July 31, 2017 at 7:55 pmHi Danika,
I’m so excited to buy this book and use your study. Thanks for offering it for free! However, I can’t get it to download for me. Could you help me figure that out, please?
Thank you!
Margaret D. says
July 31, 2017 at 8:08 pmWell, I finally figured out how to “trick” my computer, and it downloaded. :o)
Thanks!