I'm looking for recommendations for a book which can explain the core ideas and differences between Luther, Melanchton and Zwingli. I looked at 'Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700' but its page count and detail is not what i'm looking for.
I'm writing a paper in which these disputes have a tangential relevance and as such i need a general rather than an in depth understanding of these issues. I'd like the literature to be academic if possible.
Hoping for some great reformation era historians out there!
Thanks for reading.
Well, MacCulloch takes a very strongly intellectual history approach, and is a very good writer--there's nothing to stop you from reading only the relevant parts; The Reformation has a very nice index. To anyone else reading this thread, read this book.
That said, the book is you want for your specific purposes, OP, is Carter Lindberg, ed., The Reformation Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Early Modern Period. Each chapter focuses on a different early Ref. figure and is written by a specialist in that particular thinker.
Have you considered incorporating something like Luther's Small Catechism. http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php? Wouldn't really suggest you rely on it 100 percent, but Luther wrote it with a broad audience in mind and many issues are implicit within the text.