A.J. Beachy, The Concept of Grace in the Radical Reformation

Grace, both as a concept and a word is beautiful and fascinating to explore, both historically and theologically. A.J. Beachy takes grace and dissects the way that the concept evolved during the Radical Reformation in his text The Concept of Grace in the Radical Reformation. In the book the author contends that grace was not “so much a forensic change in status before God as it is an ontological change within the individual believer.” To put the quote another way, in a world with an all knowing omnipotent God that exists outside of time and space, human beings follow a certain set path that no matter what their choices are, has already laid out for them, and each and human being both past and present are predestined for either Heaven or Hell from birth, as long as they have faith their grace is assured.

As a non-religious, non- German/Anglo historian, and an admitted atheist, The Concept of Grace took a little work for me to unpack, particularly the differentiations between the Magisterial and Radical Reformations, the role of the Anabaptists, and the differences between Lutheranism and Calvinism, but the outcome of the work involved was satisfying. Beachy is not fun, or even terribly compelling in his writing style, he is however well organized, concise, and extremely knowledgeable in his writing. The book itself is laid out in seven sections which cover various topics or groups and their particular tie-ins, beliefs, or relationships with grace. As a layman to the concept of grace in religious connotations it was very interesting to learn the history of the term and its ties to Jesus Christ, and how they link to Adam and Eve. It is perhaps common knowledge among those more theologically oriented that Jesus was considered the second Adam who broke the link between man and Satan with his sacrifice, or that Jesus could not have been a son of man in order for him to accomplish that feat, because if he were he would have been born a sinner.

Sourcing for this particular work is extremely well done, and you can see the undoubtedly countless hours that the author put into his research. The bibliography is vast and covers a great many authors whom upon further research are extremely well know from the Reformation. Names like Martin Bucer and Hans Denck, their thoughts on Calvinism and their arguments over sin being propagated or imitated by Adams descendants, or Melchior Hoffman and his thoughts on Lutheranism (that he compiled during his travels to the Baltic), were easily recognizable and respected authors during the time of the Reformation. The mentioned names, along with many others and their opinions on the exact status of Christ, and his status as the living embodiment as the word of God versus, or in conjunction with the bible make for some interesting reading.

The biggest flaw with Grace is directly tied into what it is that makes this book important in the historical record, it is written almost solely for theologians. As a historian reading this book one is left wishing for discussions of culture, or links to the contemporary religious discussions on grace, or even a link to non-religious ideas of what grace means and how they possibly evolved. The book also has two other things that work against it, the time in which it was written (1960’s), which comes through a small amount in the author’s language, and the fact that it is written with the speed and alacrity of a doctoral thesis, because it is one. With those criticisms aside, this book is still worth reading to someone who either has a moderate level of knowledge of the Radical Reformation, Protestantism, and Grace, or an interest in learning more about them, just make sure you don’t use this book as your starting point.