Dr. Bruce Gordon, author of Zwingli: God’s Armed Prophet (2021), joins me to speak about the theology, life, and legacy of Ulrich Zwingli. We discuss Zwingli’s intellectual roots in the optimistic humanism of Erasmus, his differences from Luther and Calvin, and how a broad-minded pacifist came to die a political radical in an unnecessary military skirmish. In Zwingli, Dr. Gordon finds a complex Christian figure, with many virtues, deserving of greater attention, and transcending his stereotypical representations.
Dr. Gordon is Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School and Professor of Reformation History in the Department of History of Yale University. He is the author of The Swiss Reformation (2002), Calvin (2009), with Carl Trueman The Oxford Handbook to Calvin and Calvinism (Oxford, 2021), and most recently, The Bible: A Global History (2024).
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Chapters
Intro 00:00
Dr. Gordon’s Journey to Zwingli 03:53
What Is Humanism? 13:21
The Bible, Humanism, and Scholasticism 23:25
Calvin v. Zwingli 28:27
Pacifism and War 40:53
Religion and Politics 52:02
Social Transformation in Zwingli 1:00:41
Reviving Zwingli’s Legacy 1:09:08
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