The Reformation in sixteenth-century Western Europe, whose genesisis often associated with the 1517 publication of Martin Luther’sNinety-five Theses, represents not only a critical turning point in the history of the church but also a decisive shift in recorded history morebroadly. The religious, cultural, and political transformation sprecipitated by the Reformation fundamentally challenged the Roman Catholic Church, reshaped the entire Christian landscape, and, in thecourse of subsequent missionary activities and the global expansion of Christianity, impacted cultures far beyond Renaissance Europe. The contributions to this special issue are the revised versions of selected papers presented at the conference, representing different areas of interest but sharing the same concern, namely, an interrogation of how the Reformation hascontributed to the development of ideas and values over the past five centuries.
