Adam and Eve in the Protestant Reformation

The story of Adam and Eve, ubiquitous in the art and literature of the period, played a central role in the religious controversies of sixteenth-century Europe. This is the first book to explore the variety and circulation of stories about Adam and Eve in German Lutheran areas and to analyze their place in the construction of Lutheran culture and identity. Kathleen M. Crowther examines Lutheran versions of the story of Adam and Eve in a variety of sources, including bibles, commentaries, devotional tracts, sermons, plays, poems, medical and natural history texts, and woodcut images. Her research identifies how Lutheran storytellers differentiated their unique versions of the story from those of their medieval predecessors and their Catholic and Calvinist contemporaries. She also explores the appeal of the story of Adam and Eve to Lutherans as a means to define, defend, and disseminate their distinctive views on human nature, original sin, salvation, marriage, family, gender relations, and social order.