Dissemination And Contemporary Impact Of The Reformation In A European Context

An overview of Susan Karant-Nunn’s impact on the social and cultural history of the Reformation in central Europe.

This collected volume is dedicated to the role of prayer books in lay piety in medieval and early modern contexts. Instead of focusing on individual examples, it places them within the broader genre of devotional literature and considers them in connection with prevailing cultural, religious and artistic developments, taking into account the Reformation, the printing press and growing interest in lay piety, in the context of increasing individualism, developing literacy, privatization and/or personalization of religion. Contextualising devotional literature, the volume refines understandings of religious practice fostered by traditional Catholicism and early modern Protestantism and its relationship with the written word, locating the use of books within a devotional 'diet' that included oral recitation of prayers as well as contemplation of images. Stressing continuities, often against the grain of existing literature, this volume highlights differences between regional cultures of prayer in contrast to norms set by the universal Church and emphasizes the tension between public/communal and private/individual devotion.

Recent decades have witnessed the fragmentation of Reformation studies, with high-level research confined within specific geographical, confessional or chronological boundaries. By bringing together scholars working on a wide variety of topics, this volume counteracts this centrifugal trend and provides a broad perspective on the impact of the European reformation. The essays present new research from historians of politics, of the church and of belief. Their geographical scope ranges from Scotland and England via France and Germany to Transylvania and their chronological span from the 1520s to the 1690s Considering the impact of the Reformation on political culture and examining the relationship between rulers and ruled; the book also examines the church and its personnel, another sphere of life that was entirely transformed by the Reformation. Important aspects of knowledge and belief are discussed in terms of scientific knowledge and technological progress, juxtaposed with analyses of elite and popular belief, which demonstrates the limitations of Weber's notion of the disenchantment of the world. Together they indicate the diverse directions in which Reformation scholarship is now moving, while reminding us of the need to understand particular developments within a broader European context; demonstrating that movements for religious reform left no sphere of European life untouched.

This book addresses the multifaceted history of the domestic sphere in Europe from the Age of Reformation to the emergence of modern society. By focusing on daily practice, interaction and social relations, it shows continuities and social change in European history from an interior perspective. The Routledge History of the Domestic Sphere in Europe contains a variety of approaches from different regions that each pose a challenge to commonplace views such as the emergence of confessional cultures, of private life, and of separate spheres of men and women. By analyzing a plethora of manifold sources including diaries, court records, paintings and domestic advice literature, this volume provides an overview of the domestic sphere as a location of work and consumption, conflict and cooperation, emotions and intimacy, and devotion and education. The book sheds light on changing relations between spouses, parents and children, masters and servants or apprentices, and humans and animals or plants, thereby exceeding the notion of the modern nuclear family. This volume will be of great use to upper-level graduates, postgraduates and experienced scholars interested in the history of family, household, social space, gender, emotions, material culture, work and private life in early modern and nineteenth-century Europe.

The essays in Emancipating Calvin: Culture and Confessional Identity in Francophone Reformed Communities demonstrate the vitality and variety of Francophone Reformed communities, examining how local contexts shaped the implementation of reforming ideas emanating from John Calvin and Geneva.

This work provides a comprehensive and multi-facetted account of the Reformation in eastern and central Europe, drawing on extensive archival research carried out by Continental and British scholars. Across a broad thematic, temporal and geographical range, the contributors examine the cultural impact of the Reformation in Eastern Europe, the encounters between different confessions, and the blend of religious and political pressures which shaped the path of Reformation in these lands. By making the fruits of their research accessible to a wider audience, the contributors hope to emphasise the important role of eastern and central Europe on the early modern European scene.

The reformation of the Western Church was a series of momentous events that uprooted many things previously taken for granted. In the wake of these dramatic changes, adherents to the various emerging confessional cultures in the sixteenth century sought assurance with the help of historiography. They created specific narratives of the events surrounding the Reformation and a historical continuity from early Christianity to legitimize their own religious teaching and practice. Subsequently, the Reformation, as a process of reform, renewal, or upheaval of church and society, shaped the way contemporary actors and the following generations dealt with history in the pre-modern era. The authors of the present volume pursue inquiries into these and other related developments, taking a wide range of denominational perspectives in various European contexts into account, until well into the eighteenth century.