Prayer Books And Piety In Late Medieval And Early Modern Europe Gebetb Cher Und Fr Mmigkeit In Sp Tmittelalter Und Fr Her Neuzeit

Teaser Religious texts of various literary genres reveal the transforming expressions of piety from medieval times to the early modern period.

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.

In her study Chaoluan Kao offers a comprehensive investigation of popular piety at the time of the European Reformations through the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestant prayerbooks. It pursues a historical-contextual approach to spirituality by integrating social and religious history in order to yield a deeper understanding of both the history of Christian piety and of church history in general. The study explores seven prayerbooks by German authors and seventeen English prayerbooks from the Reformation and post-Reformation as well as from Lutheran, Anglican, and Puritan traditions, examining them as spiritual texts with social and theological significance that helped disseminate popular understandings of Protestant piety. Early Protestant piety required intellectual engagement, emphasized a faithful and heartfelt attitude in approaching God, and urged regular exercise in prayer and reading. Early Protestant prayerbooks modeled for their readers a Protestant piety that was a fervent spiritual practice solidly grounded in the social context and connections of its practitioners. Through those books, Reformation could be understood as redefining the meanings of people's spiritual lives and re-discovering of a pious life. In a broader sense, they functioned as a channel of historical and spiritual transition, which not only tells us the transformation and transmission of Reformation historically but also signifies the development of Christian spirituality. The social-historical study of the prayerbooks furthers our understanding of continuity, change, and inter-confessional influence in the Christian piety of early modern Europe.