Roland Bainton

Infobox Writer
name = Roland Bainton
birthdate = 1894
birthplace = England
deathdate = 1984
occupation = Historian
period = 20th century
subject = Reformation history

Roland Herbert Bainton (1894-1984) was an English church historian.

Life

He was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire [ [http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9195726 Roland Bainton at Biography.com] accessed June 2007] , England and came to the United States in 1902. He received an A.B. degree from Whitman College, and B.D. and Ph.D.. degrees from Yale University. He also received a number of honorary degrees including a D.D. from Meadville Theological Seminary and from Oberlin College, "Dr. Theologiae" from the University of Marburg, Germany, and Litt.D. from Gettysburg College. A specialist in Reformation history, Bainton was for forty-two years Titus Street Professor of ecclesiastical history at Yale, and he continued his writing well into his twenty years of retirement.

Bainton's father was a pacifist, and he himself married a Quaker. Graduating from seminary just as World War I began, he affiliated with the Society of Friends' unit of the American Red Cross. Although he was ordained as a Congregationist minister, he never served as the pastor of a congregation.

Bainton wore his scholarship lightly and had a lively, readable style. His most popular books were "Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther" (1950)--which sold more than a million copies--and "The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century" (1952), both of which were widely used as textbooks. In all he was the author of more than thirty books on Christianity. Many of Bainton's books are illustrated with examples taken from his collection of medieval and Renaissance drawings, woodcuts, and engravings. [cite book
title = Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther | origyear=1950
year = 1980 | publisher = Abingdon | location = Nashville | id = ISBN 0-687-16893-7
pages = back cover ]

Works

"Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther"

Bainton published "Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther" in 1950. As of 2006, it is still in print. Kenneth Scott Latourette, in the chapter notes for "Luther and the Rise and Spread of Lutheranism" in his "History of Christianity", lauds Bainton's biography of Luther as "A superb combination of accurate scholarship based upon a thorough knowledge of the sources and secondary works with insight, vivid, readable literary style, and reproductions of contemporary illustrations. It also contains so valuable a bibliography as to render needless an extended one in this chapter." [cite book
last = Latourette | first = Kenneth | authorlink = Kenneth Scott Latourette
title = A History of Christianity Volume II: Reformation to the Present
year = 1975 | publisher = Harper & Row | location = New York | id = ISBN 0-06-064536-9 | pages = p. 743 | chapter = Luther and the Rise and Spread of Lutheranism ]

In his chapter on Luther's writings in "Invitation to the Classics", [cite book
last = Noll | first = Mark | authorlink = Mark Noll | editor = Louise Cowan and Os Guinness
title = Invitation to the Classics
year = 1998 | publisher = Baker Books | location = Grand Rapids | id = ISBN 0-8010-1156-6
pages = p. 121 | chapter = Martin Luther ] Mark A. Noll singles out Bainton's biography: "Of the many superlative treatments, a half-century old study by Roland Bainton, "Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther", has justly won a reputation as a classic work on a classic subject."

"The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century"

This volume went to press in 1952. Its value, also, is acknowledged by Latourette in the chapter notes on "Luther and the Rise and Spread of Lutheranism" (see note on "Here I Stand"), thus, "An admirable popular brief summary by an outstanding specialist". [cite book
last = Latourette | title = History of Christianity: Reformation to the Present
pages = p. 742 | chapter = Luther and the Rise and Spread of Lutheranism ]

Other Works

(Non-exhaustive)
* "The Age of Reformation"
* "Behold the Christ: A portrayal of Christ in words and pictures"
* "Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace"
* "Christianity"
* "The Church of Our Fathers"
* "Erasmus of Christendom"
* "Hunted Heretic: The Life and Death of Michael Servetus, 1511-1553"
* "The Travail of Religious Liberty"
* "Women of the Reformation in France and England"

References

Notes

Books by Roland Bainton

*cite book
title = Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther | origyear=1950
year = 1991 | month = September | publisher = Abingdon | location = Nashville
id = ISBN 0-687-16895-3

*cite book
title = The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century
year = 1952 | publisher = The Beacon Press | location = Boston | id = ISBN 0-8070-1301-3

*cite book
title = Christianity | origyear = 1964
edition: First Mariner Books edition | year = 2000
publisher = Mariner Books | location = Boston
id = ISBN 0-618-05687-4