The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation

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Genre: History: World; Biography; Biography and Autobiography - Historical; History; History - Europe; Homeschooling; Juvenile Nonfiction; Reformation; Reformation (1517-1648); Renaissance; Renaissance - History; Textbooks; United States; Juvenile Nonfiction / History / Europe; Religion - Contemporary Issues; Religion;

Average Review: 4 stars

Review: Would have been much better without the extraneous religious commentary : Please, read this book before you give it to your children. There is a bias running throughout. I don't know whether to call it "politically correct" or "anti Christian" or what. Here's an example from the chapter on St. Francis and St. Dominic, which begins thus: "There is a sad fact about the institutions which men found. No matter how clearly the founders may state the goals, eventually high purposes degenerate and organizations develop bureaucracies whose main goal seems to be to preserve their own existence and power. The church [sic] is affected by this tendency as well. Every so often in the Middle Ages, someone noticed that the church was in need of reform. Benedict had withdrawn from Rome and founded his monastery... Hildebrand, another monk, led a reform movement... A few hundred years later, two more reformers arose. Their movements led to the founding of two new and different kinds of monastic orders (in another two hundred years, a German monk named Martin Luther would lead another reform movement...) ...The first reformer was named Francis." My jaw dropped when I read this. I have honestly never seen St. Benedict, Hildebrand (aka Pope St. Gregory VII) and St. Francis listed on the same page with Martin Luther as "reformers." Furthermore, those who believe that the Church was established not by a man but by God might be taken aback by the author's impertinent commentary. Why couldn't the book just factually state what St. Francis did, rather than pontificate on the nature of religious institutions? I just did not feel comfortable with the tone of this book. Like another book in the series, "Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation," it offers too much conjecture and commentary on religion. If you are religious yourself (or just someone who could do without the distracting comments), you might want to pass on this book.