Content area
Full Text
Finding the Middle Way: The Utraquists' Liberal Challenge to Rome and Luther. By Zdenek V David. (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. Order from The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. 2003. Pp. xxiii, 579. $65.00.)
Hussite religion (1500-1621) has often been ignored. This book changes that. Ten years of dedicated research have yielded this impressive study adding considerably to knowledge of Central European religious history. The achievements of Bohemian Christianity are vigorously underscored. Utilizing the comparative paradigm of the post-Reformation Church of England, a thorough revisionist study emerges. Attempting to forge a path between Roman and Reformation Churches, David argues that Jan Hus and Hussitism were not Protestant. The corollary-Hussite religion eventually became Roman Catholic-is likewise challenged. I find those arguments refreshing. The book expertly charts the unique development of Utraquist Christianity.
Some assertions are problematic. Claiming virtually all Bohemia was Hussite is exaggeration. Distinctions between Táborites as heretics and "Utraquists" (David's term of choice) as mere schismatics is artificial. I do not accept that the term"Hussite" is improper. Jan Hus was a heretic. It is misleading to suggest that Paul De Vooght virtually vindicated Hus. Whatever De Vooght's conclusions entailed, he regarded Hus as heretical. Francis Oakley's suggestion that Hus was almost orthodox is meaningless. A theological hair's breadth separated Francis of Assisi...