Serving Kings, Transforming Churches - The Thomas Cranmer Collection (10 vols.)

Richard Wardman
Richard Wardman Member Posts: 1,362 ✭✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

















Community Pricing is a huge gift from Logos to its users, making classic works available for bargain prices.  Some people (like me, at first) might take one look at the chart, containing all kinds of dots, arrows and numbers, and run a mile.   But once you’ve taken the time to investigate what it all means, the idea becomes crystal clear: Customers decide what books Logos produce, and what price they’ll pay (If you're still confused, it's all explained here)!

One recent example would be the three-volume Edwin Hatch Collection.  When enough people had placed bids to cover production costs the whole thing went for $8 (that’s under £5 for my fellow Pound Sterling friends).  Right now it would cost you $39.95 on Pre-Pub.  That’s a huge saving for anyone who got in early under Community Pricing!



Now, another massive saving is on its way: The Thomas Cranmer Collection (10 vols.).  It’s almost reached 60% on Community Pricing, and currently stands at $30 (£19); but as more people bid, that price will go down.  

So who was Thomas Cranmer, you ask?  Made Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII, Cranmer (1489-1556) played a pivotal role in the separation of the Church of England from the Church of Rome (due largely to Henry VIII’s desire to divorce). During his time as Archbishop he partnered with Thomas Cromwell to produce an English translation of the Bible.  He also wrote extensively about and against the doctrine of transubstantiation.  All of this, and more, is chronicled in the The Thomas Cranmer Collection (10 vols.), both in Cranmer's own writings and in the biographical works of others.

But he might be best known for producing The Book Common of Prayer.  It was Cranmer's desire to see the worship of the Church of England transformed into "the tongue understanded of the people" (from Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church).  Along the way, Cranmer began to adopt many of the ideas coming from the Reformation happening on the European continent, perhaps most clearly seen in his radical change of opinion with regard to the Eucharist.  The impact of his life and work are still felt today, not least as millions still continue to use The Book Common of Prayer.  

However, Cranmer didn't achieve all of this without getting burnt - literally.  Under Queen Mary (a.k.a. Bloody Mary) Cranmer was tried under reinstated blasphemy laws and sentenced to death by burning at the stake.  In desperation, Cranmer attempted to save his life by recanting his Protestant views and pledging allegiance to the Pope.  Despite this the execution went ahead, but not before an emboldened Cranmer made his final speech, "in which he declared the pope 'Christ’s enemy and antichrist' (from 131 Christians Everyone Should Know).  The hand he had used to sign papers repudiating his denial of the Pope was the first thing thrust into the flames, as Cranmer repeatedly declared, "This hand hath offended." 

Cranmer's legacy is summed up in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church:

“To Cranmer the C of E owes not only the masterly English style of the liturgy in use almost universally for some 400 years, but also its essentially scriptural spirituality for which he was largely responsible.”  

So, The Thomas Cranmer Collection (10 vols.) is a worthy edition to your Logos Library, and all at the price of $30 or under.  Not only do you invest in your knowledge of the Reformation in England, but you also gain insight into the mind and heart of a great (though, like all of us, not faultless) disciple of Jesus Christ. 

 

«1

Comments

Categories