This chapter examines the decline of an historical idea, namely, that the Reformation marked a rupture in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe. In that idea, the Reformation was supposed to interrupt and begin to dismantle medieval philosophy, theology, science, aesthetics, politics, and even popular mentalities. Since the publication of Heiko Oberman’s Harvest of Medieval Theology (1963), many historians have abandoned the idea that the Reformation marked a radical, modernizing break from medieval thought and culture.Instead, scholars see the Reformation as a series of incremental changes taking place over a long period of time, roughly between 1450 and 1650. The chapter explains the constructive role of medieval theology in Protestant thought on the example of Matthias Flacius Illyricus, and it summarizes and interprets recent scholarship on the late medieval background to Reformation thought.

The sixth chapter, the summation, shows the paradox that Calvin’s argument against tradition has been accepted at face value, even though Calvin regularly used the tradition in his doctrinal, polemical, and pastoral work. This paradox created both historiographical and cultural consequences. Historiographically, a great number of scholars accepted the false picture of Protestant biblicism vs. Catholic traditionalism, frequently noted by the couplet scripture and tradition or scripture vs. tradition. Culturally, this supplied certain heirs of Reformed thought to believe that their traditions were wholly biblical, and thus neither culturally conditioned, nor open to change. This had disastrous impacts, from racism to sexism to the exploitation of the natural world. The study then examines a variety of theological receptions of tradition to argue for a more nuanced appropriation of tradition.