This book deals with the impact of the Reformation debate in Germany on the most prominent intellectual movement of the time: humanism. Although it is true that humanism influenced the course of the Reformation, says Erika Rummel, the dynamics of the relationship are better described by saying that humanism was co-opted, perhaps even exploited, in the religious debate.

Erika Rummel has taught at the University of Toronto and WLU, Waterloo. She has lived in big cities (Los Angeles, Vienna) and small villaes in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria. She has written extensively on social history, translated the correspondence of inventor Alfred Nobel, the humanist Erasmus, and the Reformer Wolfgang Capito. She is the author of a number of historical novels, most recently The Road to Gesualdo and The Inquisitor's Niece, which was judged best historical novel of the year by the Colorado Independent Publishers' Association. In 2018 the Renaissance Society of America honoured her with a lifetime achievement award. She divides her time between living in Toronto and Santa Monica, California. The Loneliness of the Time Traveller is her eighth novel.

Erika Rummel's profile page

"It is Rummel's achievement that her readers come to see clearly how utterly serious were the issues underlying the often recondite and always wordy contentions of all participants...What emerges most strongly from this book is the realization that "confessionalization" was lived as a process of individual experiences undergone by real people who were struggling in a noble cause, which was the common humanistic heritage of liberal studies."--American Historical Review

"This volume will set the agenda for critical scholarly discussion of the relationship of confessionalization and humanism."--Religious Studies Review

"Her explanation of the forces at work in the 'confessionalization' of humanism is acute,"--American Historical Review