Nicholas Hardy and Dmitri Levitin (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266601
- eISBN:
- 9780191896057
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266601.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ...
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This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ways in which erudition contributed to—or clashed with—the formation of confessional identities in the wake of the Reformation, at individual, institutional, national and international levels. Covering Catholics and Protestants in equal measure, the essays assess biblical criticism; the study of the church fathers; the ecclesiastical censorship of scholarly works; oriental studies and the engagement with Near Eastern languages, texts and communities; and the relationship between developments in scholarship and other domains, including practical piety, natural philosophy, and the universities and seminaries where most intellectual activity was still conducted. One of the volume’s main strengths is its chronological coverage. It begins with an unprecedentedly detailed and comprehensive review of the scholarly literature in this field and proceeds with case studies ranging from the early Reformation to the eighteenth century. The volume also features the publication of a remarkable new manuscript detailing Isaac Newton’s early theological studies in 1670s Cambridge. It will be of interest not only to early modern intellectual and religious historians, but also to those with broader interests in religious change, the reception of oriental and classical sources and traditions, the history of science, and in the sociology of knowledge.Less
This volume examines the relationship between the history of scholarship and the history of Christianity in the early modern period. Leading British, American and continental scholars explore the ways in which erudition contributed to—or clashed with—the formation of confessional identities in the wake of the Reformation, at individual, institutional, national and international levels. Covering Catholics and Protestants in equal measure, the essays assess biblical criticism; the study of the church fathers; the ecclesiastical censorship of scholarly works; oriental studies and the engagement with Near Eastern languages, texts and communities; and the relationship between developments in scholarship and other domains, including practical piety, natural philosophy, and the universities and seminaries where most intellectual activity was still conducted. One of the volume’s main strengths is its chronological coverage. It begins with an unprecedentedly detailed and comprehensive review of the scholarly literature in this field and proceeds with case studies ranging from the early Reformation to the eighteenth century. The volume also features the publication of a remarkable new manuscript detailing Isaac Newton’s early theological studies in 1670s Cambridge. It will be of interest not only to early modern intellectual and religious historians, but also to those with broader interests in religious change, the reception of oriental and classical sources and traditions, the history of science, and in the sociology of knowledge.
Amy Nelson Burnett
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195305760
- eISBN:
- 9780199784912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195305760.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the century after the Reformation, Basel’s clergy gradually met the criteria of professionalization. Central to this transformation was the church’s control over the education and appointment of ...
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In the century after the Reformation, Basel’s clergy gradually met the criteria of professionalization. Central to this transformation was the church’s control over the education and appointment of its clergy. Basel may not have been typical, but it clearly illustrates trends that occurred in other, larger territories over a somewhat longer time period. The case of Basel also reveals the important connection between the development of rhetoric and dialectic instruction at the university and the evolution of both theology and preaching, and it indicates some possible differences between Lutheran and Reformed preaching. It questions the older interpretation of Basel’s confessional history, indicating instead the persistence of a non-confessional form of Protestantism into the 1570s. Together with the Senate’s relative lack of concern with church affairs during this time, this suggests that confessionalization, if defined as a process imposed from above, did not begin until the last two decades of the century, coinciding with the entry of the third generation into the ministry.Less
In the century after the Reformation, Basel’s clergy gradually met the criteria of professionalization. Central to this transformation was the church’s control over the education and appointment of its clergy. Basel may not have been typical, but it clearly illustrates trends that occurred in other, larger territories over a somewhat longer time period. The case of Basel also reveals the important connection between the development of rhetoric and dialectic instruction at the university and the evolution of both theology and preaching, and it indicates some possible differences between Lutheran and Reformed preaching. It questions the older interpretation of Basel’s confessional history, indicating instead the persistence of a non-confessional form of Protestantism into the 1570s. Together with the Senate’s relative lack of concern with church affairs during this time, this suggests that confessionalization, if defined as a process imposed from above, did not begin until the last two decades of the century, coinciding with the entry of the third generation into the ministry.
Regina Pörtner
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199246151
- eISBN:
- 9780191715228
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246151.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This book demonstrates that the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries contributed to the process of state building in Inner Austria in various ways, most important among which were the ...
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This book demonstrates that the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries contributed to the process of state building in Inner Austria in various ways, most important among which were the enhancement of the power of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of an ideological formula for the consensus between the dynasty and the provincial nobilities who represented the political nation. On the other hand, there was the case of Hungary and the unsolved problem of crypto-Protestantism which illustrated the dialectics of a confessional policy that already carried the germ of self-destruction. In the course of the 18th century, it was to succumb to the dissolvent, secularising forces of the Enlightenment, whose ‘cosmopolitan’ expansionism was in turn checked by the countercurrents of nascent nationalism. The age of confessionalisation and aspiring confessional absolutism thus left an ambivalent legacy of repression and revolt, to be rejected or assimilated by the modern national movements of the peoples in the Habsburg Monarchy.Less
This book demonstrates that the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries contributed to the process of state building in Inner Austria in various ways, most important among which were the enhancement of the power of the Habsburg Monarchy and the creation of an ideological formula for the consensus between the dynasty and the provincial nobilities who represented the political nation. On the other hand, there was the case of Hungary and the unsolved problem of crypto-Protestantism which illustrated the dialectics of a confessional policy that already carried the germ of self-destruction. In the course of the 18th century, it was to succumb to the dissolvent, secularising forces of the Enlightenment, whose ‘cosmopolitan’ expansionism was in turn checked by the countercurrents of nascent nationalism. The age of confessionalisation and aspiring confessional absolutism thus left an ambivalent legacy of repression and revolt, to be rejected or assimilated by the modern national movements of the peoples in the Habsburg Monarchy.
Dmitri Levitin
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266601
- eISBN:
- 9780191896057
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266601.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
What effect did the structural process of religious confessionalisation have on the production, publication, and dissemination of works of erudition, and on shaping those aspects of European ...
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What effect did the structural process of religious confessionalisation have on the production, publication, and dissemination of works of erudition, and on shaping those aspects of European intellectual activity that have come to be known as the ‘humanities’? This introductory overview offers a comparative assessment of that question, focussing separately on each confessional space: Catholic, Reformed, and Lutheran, and the individual regions within each. It stresses the importance of confessional investment in erudite practices for stimulating their growth and development. At the same time, it emphasises the importance of trans-confessional emulation as an agent of intellectual change. It is suggested that early modern erudition and the conditions in which it developed should be conceptualised on their own terms, rather than as a triumphant precursor of the ‘modern’ humanities or a pale remnant of the golden age of a pre-confessional Renaissance humanism.Less
What effect did the structural process of religious confessionalisation have on the production, publication, and dissemination of works of erudition, and on shaping those aspects of European intellectual activity that have come to be known as the ‘humanities’? This introductory overview offers a comparative assessment of that question, focussing separately on each confessional space: Catholic, Reformed, and Lutheran, and the individual regions within each. It stresses the importance of confessional investment in erudite practices for stimulating their growth and development. At the same time, it emphasises the importance of trans-confessional emulation as an agent of intellectual change. It is suggested that early modern erudition and the conditions in which it developed should be conceptualised on their own terms, rather than as a triumphant precursor of the ‘modern’ humanities or a pale remnant of the golden age of a pre-confessional Renaissance humanism.
Serhii Plokhy
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199247394
- eISBN:
- 9780191714436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247394.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This book explores the interaction of Cossackdom and religion, specifically the role of the Cossacks in the religious wars that began in Ukraine in the late 16th century and the influence of religion ...
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This book explores the interaction of Cossackdom and religion, specifically the role of the Cossacks in the religious wars that began in Ukraine in the late 16th century and the influence of religion on the ideology, social and political behavior, and cultural identity of the Cossacks. Another aspect of this theme is the effect of Cossack intervention in religious affairs on the Ukraine's Orthodox Church and its relations with other churches and religious groups. The period covered in this book, extending from the late 16th century to the middle of the 17th, was one of the growth and development of Ukrainian Cossackdom as a distinct social estate. It discusses the effect of confessionalisation on religious life in Ukraine and how it influenced the fate and outlook of Ukrainian Cossackdom.Less
This book explores the interaction of Cossackdom and religion, specifically the role of the Cossacks in the religious wars that began in Ukraine in the late 16th century and the influence of religion on the ideology, social and political behavior, and cultural identity of the Cossacks. Another aspect of this theme is the effect of Cossack intervention in religious affairs on the Ukraine's Orthodox Church and its relations with other churches and religious groups. The period covered in this book, extending from the late 16th century to the middle of the 17th, was one of the growth and development of Ukrainian Cossackdom as a distinct social estate. It discusses the effect of confessionalisation on religious life in Ukraine and how it influenced the fate and outlook of Ukrainian Cossackdom.
Serhii Plokhy
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199247394
- eISBN:
- 9780191714436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247394.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
The events of the last quarter of the 16th century in the Kyivan metropolitanate largely determined the course of further ecclesiastical development, playing a decisive role in the history of the ...
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The events of the last quarter of the 16th century in the Kyivan metropolitanate largely determined the course of further ecclesiastical development, playing a decisive role in the history of the Ukrainian lands. The new era made unprecedented demands on the leaders of the Kyivan church, its institutions, and the mass of the faithful, while expanding contacts with the West brought the powerful influences of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation to bear on the Ukrainian lands. The impact of confessionalisation, which intensified both internal and external pressures on the old traditional structures of the Kyivan metropolitanate, proved overwhelming, and the church, failing to withstand them, split in two and sparked a religious crisis between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. One branch remained under the authority of the patriarchs of Constantinople, while the other subordinated itself to the pope of Rome. The growth of Counter-Reformation tendencies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had a great influence on the development of religious life in Ukraine.Less
The events of the last quarter of the 16th century in the Kyivan metropolitanate largely determined the course of further ecclesiastical development, playing a decisive role in the history of the Ukrainian lands. The new era made unprecedented demands on the leaders of the Kyivan church, its institutions, and the mass of the faithful, while expanding contacts with the West brought the powerful influences of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation to bear on the Ukrainian lands. The impact of confessionalisation, which intensified both internal and external pressures on the old traditional structures of the Kyivan metropolitanate, proved overwhelming, and the church, failing to withstand them, split in two and sparked a religious crisis between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. One branch remained under the authority of the patriarchs of Constantinople, while the other subordinated itself to the pope of Rome. The growth of Counter-Reformation tendencies in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had a great influence on the development of religious life in Ukraine.
Serhii Plokhy
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199247394
- eISBN:
- 9780191714436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247394.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter examines the relationship, if any, between Cossackdom and nationhood, how social and national identities were interconnected in Ruthenian society, and the role of religion in that ...
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This chapter examines the relationship, if any, between Cossackdom and nationhood, how social and national identities were interconnected in Ruthenian society, and the role of religion in that relationship. It focuses on the changing social, religious, and ethnocultural image of the Cossacks in the Ruthenian and Polish writings of the period. The Union of Lublin (1569) between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania not only established an administrative boundary between Poland and Lithuania more or less coinciding with the present-day Ukrainian-Belarusian border but also united Galicia and Western Podilia with the remaining Ukrainian territories to the east. The link between ethnicity and religion took on importance for Rus' long before early modern times because of its location on the boundary between Western and Eastern Christianity and its Islamic neighbors. In post-Brest Ukraine and Belarus, confessionalisation promoted the formation of new varieties of religious consciousness that were no longer shaped by allegiance to a once united Kyivan church but by loyalty to one of the supranational denominations: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, or some branch of Protestantism.Less
This chapter examines the relationship, if any, between Cossackdom and nationhood, how social and national identities were interconnected in Ruthenian society, and the role of religion in that relationship. It focuses on the changing social, religious, and ethnocultural image of the Cossacks in the Ruthenian and Polish writings of the period. The Union of Lublin (1569) between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania not only established an administrative boundary between Poland and Lithuania more or less coinciding with the present-day Ukrainian-Belarusian border but also united Galicia and Western Podilia with the remaining Ukrainian territories to the east. The link between ethnicity and religion took on importance for Rus' long before early modern times because of its location on the boundary between Western and Eastern Christianity and its Islamic neighbors. In post-Brest Ukraine and Belarus, confessionalisation promoted the formation of new varieties of religious consciousness that were no longer shaped by allegiance to a once united Kyivan church but by loyalty to one of the supranational denominations: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, or some branch of Protestantism.
S. J. Connolly
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198208167
- eISBN:
- 9780191716546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208167.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
By the early 17th century, the blurred religious allegiances of previous decades were rapidly giving way to a clear confessionalization. The Protestant Church of Ireland had become a colonial ...
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By the early 17th century, the blurred religious allegiances of previous decades were rapidly giving way to a clear confessionalization. The Protestant Church of Ireland had become a colonial institution, in which a clergy overwhelmingly recruited from England ministered to an almost exclusively settler population. Meanwhile, the Catholicism of the Gaelic Irish and Old English was being reorganized along Counter-Reformation lines. Conflict between the government and the Old English reached a peak at the parliament of 1613. A later agreement to trade religious toleration for assistance in resolving the crown's financial difficulties (‘the Graces’) only confirmed the estrangement that now existed. The writings of the growing community of Irish exiles in Catholic Europe reflect the development of a militant Catholic ideology. By contrast, the dominant theme within Ireland itself was the continued attempt to seek an accommodation with the new political and social order.Less
By the early 17th century, the blurred religious allegiances of previous decades were rapidly giving way to a clear confessionalization. The Protestant Church of Ireland had become a colonial institution, in which a clergy overwhelmingly recruited from England ministered to an almost exclusively settler population. Meanwhile, the Catholicism of the Gaelic Irish and Old English was being reorganized along Counter-Reformation lines. Conflict between the government and the Old English reached a peak at the parliament of 1613. A later agreement to trade religious toleration for assistance in resolving the crown's financial difficulties (‘the Graces’) only confirmed the estrangement that now existed. The writings of the growing community of Irish exiles in Catholic Europe reflect the development of a militant Catholic ideology. By contrast, the dominant theme within Ireland itself was the continued attempt to seek an accommodation with the new political and social order.
Jonathan I. Israel
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206088
- eISBN:
- 9780191676970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206088.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas, European Modern History
Among the most protracted of the Dutch controversies was the bitter quarrel which erupted around the well-meaning figure of Johannes Bredenburg, a dispute which reached such a pitch of intensity that ...
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Among the most protracted of the Dutch controversies was the bitter quarrel which erupted around the well-meaning figure of Johannes Bredenburg, a dispute which reached such a pitch of intensity that it eventually generated a formal schism in the Dutch Collegiant movement. A fringe Church in numbers, the Collegiants, from their origins in the second quarter of the 17th century down to the early 18th, were disproportionately prominent in Dutch intellectual debate owing to the special emphasis they placed on the intellectual and spiritual freedom of the individual. As such they were both a new and highly innovative phenomenon in the wider European, as well as Dutch, context, reflecting in a theological mode the wider psychological and spiritual reaction against the pressures of confessionalization gripping western culture in the late 17th century. The Bredenburg disputes were the climax of a long process reaching back to the 1650s when a fringe of Socinian, rationalist Collegiants, including Jelles and Pieter Balling, became immersed in Cartesianism and formed links with the radical philosophical clique around Van den Enden, Meyer, and Spinoza.Less
Among the most protracted of the Dutch controversies was the bitter quarrel which erupted around the well-meaning figure of Johannes Bredenburg, a dispute which reached such a pitch of intensity that it eventually generated a formal schism in the Dutch Collegiant movement. A fringe Church in numbers, the Collegiants, from their origins in the second quarter of the 17th century down to the early 18th, were disproportionately prominent in Dutch intellectual debate owing to the special emphasis they placed on the intellectual and spiritual freedom of the individual. As such they were both a new and highly innovative phenomenon in the wider European, as well as Dutch, context, reflecting in a theological mode the wider psychological and spiritual reaction against the pressures of confessionalization gripping western culture in the late 17th century. The Bredenburg disputes were the climax of a long process reaching back to the 1650s when a fringe of Socinian, rationalist Collegiants, including Jelles and Pieter Balling, became immersed in Cartesianism and formed links with the radical philosophical clique around Van den Enden, Meyer, and Spinoza.
Arnoud S. Q. Visser
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199765935
- eISBN:
- 9780199895168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765935.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter introduces the reader to Augustine of Hippo and his varied reception in the long sixteenth century. It explains the aims, scope, and organization of the book and situates its main ...
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This chapter introduces the reader to Augustine of Hippo and his varied reception in the long sixteenth century. It explains the aims, scope, and organization of the book and situates its main arguments in the context of recent research in the fields of Reformation history (including the confessionalization paradigm, the concept of Augustinianism and recent studies of the reception of the Church fathers), Renaissance Humanism, and the history of reading.Less
This chapter introduces the reader to Augustine of Hippo and his varied reception in the long sixteenth century. It explains the aims, scope, and organization of the book and situates its main arguments in the context of recent research in the fields of Reformation history (including the confessionalization paradigm, the concept of Augustinianism and recent studies of the reception of the Church fathers), Renaissance Humanism, and the history of reading.
Joachim Whaley
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198731016
- eISBN:
- 9780191730870
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198731016.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
After 1555 princes and urban magistrates faced the task of re‐establishing order and equilibrium. German historians have generally described this as a process of confessionalisation that led to state ...
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After 1555 princes and urban magistrates faced the task of re‐establishing order and equilibrium. German historians have generally described this as a process of confessionalisation that led to state formation. In fact, however, the German territories remained subject to the authority of the emperor and the Reich and the process of confessionalisation was not as rigorous as many have claimed. Significant developments took place in administration, finance and taxation, education and the economic activities of the princes. The court emerged once more as a central institution; in cities, ruling councils tended to aspire turn themselves into closed oligarchies. From the 1570s, however, governments found themselves challenged by the need to respond to apparently increasingly severe social and economic crises. This had implications for the way that they dealt with the poor, with minorities such as the Jews and the gypsies, and with the phenomenon of witchcraft.Less
After 1555 princes and urban magistrates faced the task of re‐establishing order and equilibrium. German historians have generally described this as a process of confessionalisation that led to state formation. In fact, however, the German territories remained subject to the authority of the emperor and the Reich and the process of confessionalisation was not as rigorous as many have claimed. Significant developments took place in administration, finance and taxation, education and the economic activities of the princes. The court emerged once more as a central institution; in cities, ruling councils tended to aspire turn themselves into closed oligarchies. From the 1570s, however, governments found themselves challenged by the need to respond to apparently increasingly severe social and economic crises. This had implications for the way that they dealt with the poor, with minorities such as the Jews and the gypsies, and with the phenomenon of witchcraft.
Alberto Tiburcio
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474440462
- eISBN:
- 9781474484657
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474440462.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book is a study on the history of polemical exchanges between Catholic missionaries and Muslim ʿulama in Safavid Iran. The book is centred around the figure of ʿAli Quli Jadid al-Islam, a ...
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This book is a study on the history of polemical exchanges between Catholic missionaries and Muslim ʿulama in Safavid Iran. The book is centred around the figure of ʿAli Quli Jadid al-Islam, a Portuguese missionary who embraced Islam and worked as a court translator for Shah Sultan Husayn. The book explores the context in which he worked, focusing on broader conditions of Muslim-Christian relations in Iran, and examining his interreligious polemical writings. The latter, conceived in response to cycles of polemics linking Iran to Rome and Mughal India, adapted the historical conventions of polemical writing to serve the specificities of a Shiʿi Iranian context. The book contributes to debates on intellectual history of Shiʿism, confessionalisation in the early modern Middle East, Conversion, biblical translation projects and commentaries, and Muslim-Christian relations in the early modern period.Less
This book is a study on the history of polemical exchanges between Catholic missionaries and Muslim ʿulama in Safavid Iran. The book is centred around the figure of ʿAli Quli Jadid al-Islam, a Portuguese missionary who embraced Islam and worked as a court translator for Shah Sultan Husayn. The book explores the context in which he worked, focusing on broader conditions of Muslim-Christian relations in Iran, and examining his interreligious polemical writings. The latter, conceived in response to cycles of polemics linking Iran to Rome and Mughal India, adapted the historical conventions of polemical writing to serve the specificities of a Shiʿi Iranian context. The book contributes to debates on intellectual history of Shiʿism, confessionalisation in the early modern Middle East, Conversion, biblical translation projects and commentaries, and Muslim-Christian relations in the early modern period.
Richard A. Muller
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195157017
- eISBN:
- 9780199849581
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195157017.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The study discussed in this chapter, of Barholomaus Keckermann, not only addresses the issue of the late Reformation or early orthodox approaches to philosophy as a necessary element in the academy ...
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The study discussed in this chapter, of Barholomaus Keckermann, not only addresses the issue of the late Reformation or early orthodox approaches to philosophy as a necessary element in the academy or university curriculum, it also examines the issue of the Reformed reappropriation of aspects of the older tradition in the era of the institutionalization of Protestantism, what might be viewed as the intellectual analogue of what various social historians have called “confessionalization”. Keckermann's analysis of the problem of faith, reason, and double truth appears as an exercise both in the positive reappraisal and in the delimitation of the bounds of philosophy.Less
The study discussed in this chapter, of Barholomaus Keckermann, not only addresses the issue of the late Reformation or early orthodox approaches to philosophy as a necessary element in the academy or university curriculum, it also examines the issue of the Reformed reappropriation of aspects of the older tradition in the era of the institutionalization of Protestantism, what might be viewed as the intellectual analogue of what various social historians have called “confessionalization”. Keckermann's analysis of the problem of faith, reason, and double truth appears as an exercise both in the positive reappraisal and in the delimitation of the bounds of philosophy.
Ayfer Karakaya-Stump
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474432689
- eISBN:
- 9781474476799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474432689.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Alevi documents that were issued by Ottoman authorities recognising related families as Sufi dervishes and/or sayyids form a point of departure of the analysis in this chapter that focuses on ...
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Alevi documents that were issued by Ottoman authorities recognising related families as Sufi dervishes and/or sayyids form a point of departure of the analysis in this chapter that focuses on relations between the Ottoman state and the Kizilbash communities. While such documents might be interpreted simply as manifestations of Ottoman religious tolerance and administrative pragmatism, this chapter approaches them in the light of the key argument of this book that emphasises the Sufi genealogies of Kizilbash/Alevi saintly lineages. In assessing relations between the Ottoman state and the Kizilbash communities, a special emphasis is placed on the sixteenth-century Kizilbash persecutions and their ruinous impact on the Sufi infrastructure of the Kizilbash milieu. I contend that the persecutory measures employed against the Kizilbash, rather than being viewed within such binaries as tolerance versus intolerance and politics versus religion, ought to be understood in connection to a range of other developments in Ottoman history, including most importantly the process of Sunni confessionalisation that entailed the demarcation of boundaries of acceptable Sufism. Pressures for confessionalisation would also pave the way for Kizilbashism to evolve from a social movement comprising a diverse range of groups and actors into a relatively coherent and self-conscious socio-religious collectivity.Less
Alevi documents that were issued by Ottoman authorities recognising related families as Sufi dervishes and/or sayyids form a point of departure of the analysis in this chapter that focuses on relations between the Ottoman state and the Kizilbash communities. While such documents might be interpreted simply as manifestations of Ottoman religious tolerance and administrative pragmatism, this chapter approaches them in the light of the key argument of this book that emphasises the Sufi genealogies of Kizilbash/Alevi saintly lineages. In assessing relations between the Ottoman state and the Kizilbash communities, a special emphasis is placed on the sixteenth-century Kizilbash persecutions and their ruinous impact on the Sufi infrastructure of the Kizilbash milieu. I contend that the persecutory measures employed against the Kizilbash, rather than being viewed within such binaries as tolerance versus intolerance and politics versus religion, ought to be understood in connection to a range of other developments in Ottoman history, including most importantly the process of Sunni confessionalisation that entailed the demarcation of boundaries of acceptable Sufism. Pressures for confessionalisation would also pave the way for Kizilbashism to evolve from a social movement comprising a diverse range of groups and actors into a relatively coherent and self-conscious socio-religious collectivity.
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198868156
- eISBN:
- 9780191904684
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198868156.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
This monograph investigates how religious coexistence functioned in six towns in the multiconfessional region of Upper Lusatia in Western Bohemia. Lutherans and Catholics found a feasible modus ...
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This monograph investigates how religious coexistence functioned in six towns in the multiconfessional region of Upper Lusatia in Western Bohemia. Lutherans and Catholics found a feasible modus vivendi through written agreements and regular negotiations. This meant that the Habsburg kings of Bohemia ruled over a Lutheran region. Lutherans and Catholics in Upper Lusatia shared spaces, objects, and rituals. Catholics adopted elements previously seen as a firm part of a Lutheran confessional culture. Lutherans, too, were willing to incorporate Catholic elements into their religiosity. Some of these overlaps were subconscious, while others were a conscious choice. This monograph provides a new narrative of the Reformation and shows that the concept of the ‘urban Reformation’, where towns are seen as centres of Lutheranism has to be reassessed, particularly in towns in former East Germany, where much work remains to be done. It shows that in a region like Upper Lusatia, which did not have a political centre and underwent a complex Reformation with many different actors, there was no clear confessionalization. By approaching the Upper Lusatian Reformation through important individuals, this monograph shows how they had to negotiate their religiosity, resulting in cross-confessional exchange and syncretism.Less
This monograph investigates how religious coexistence functioned in six towns in the multiconfessional region of Upper Lusatia in Western Bohemia. Lutherans and Catholics found a feasible modus vivendi through written agreements and regular negotiations. This meant that the Habsburg kings of Bohemia ruled over a Lutheran region. Lutherans and Catholics in Upper Lusatia shared spaces, objects, and rituals. Catholics adopted elements previously seen as a firm part of a Lutheran confessional culture. Lutherans, too, were willing to incorporate Catholic elements into their religiosity. Some of these overlaps were subconscious, while others were a conscious choice. This monograph provides a new narrative of the Reformation and shows that the concept of the ‘urban Reformation’, where towns are seen as centres of Lutheranism has to be reassessed, particularly in towns in former East Germany, where much work remains to be done. It shows that in a region like Upper Lusatia, which did not have a political centre and underwent a complex Reformation with many different actors, there was no clear confessionalization. By approaching the Upper Lusatian Reformation through important individuals, this monograph shows how they had to negotiate their religiosity, resulting in cross-confessional exchange and syncretism.
Tobias P. Graf
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198791430
- eISBN:
- 9780191833908
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198791430.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Political History
The figure of the renegade—a European Christian or Jew who had converted to Islam and was now serving the Ottoman sultan—is omnipresent in all genres produced by those early modern Christian ...
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The figure of the renegade—a European Christian or Jew who had converted to Islam and was now serving the Ottoman sultan—is omnipresent in all genres produced by those early modern Christian Europeans who wrote about the Ottoman Empire. As few contemporaries failed to remark, converts were disproportionately represented among those who governed, administered, and fought for the sultan. Unsurprisingly, therefore, renegades have attracted considerable attention from historians of Europe as well as students of European literature. Until very recently, however, Ottomanists have been surprisingly silent on the presence of Christian-European converts in the Ottoman military-administrative elite. The Sultan’s Renegades inserts these ‘foreign’ converts into the context of Ottoman elite life to reorient the discussion of these individuals away from the present focus on their exceptionality towards a qualified appreciation of their place in the Ottoman imperial enterprise and the Empire’s relations with its neighbours in Christian Europe. Drawing on Central European sources, this study highlights the deep political, religious, and cultural entanglements between the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe beyond the Mediterranean Basin as the ‘shared world’ par excellence. The existence of such trans-imperial subjects is symptomatic of the Empire’s ability to attract and integrate people of a great diversity of backgrounds, and also illustrates the extent to which the Ottomans participated in processes of religious polarization considered typical of Christian Europe. Christian Europeans remained ambivalent about those they dismissed as apostates and traitors, frequently relying on them for support in the pursuit of familial and political interests.Less
The figure of the renegade—a European Christian or Jew who had converted to Islam and was now serving the Ottoman sultan—is omnipresent in all genres produced by those early modern Christian Europeans who wrote about the Ottoman Empire. As few contemporaries failed to remark, converts were disproportionately represented among those who governed, administered, and fought for the sultan. Unsurprisingly, therefore, renegades have attracted considerable attention from historians of Europe as well as students of European literature. Until very recently, however, Ottomanists have been surprisingly silent on the presence of Christian-European converts in the Ottoman military-administrative elite. The Sultan’s Renegades inserts these ‘foreign’ converts into the context of Ottoman elite life to reorient the discussion of these individuals away from the present focus on their exceptionality towards a qualified appreciation of their place in the Ottoman imperial enterprise and the Empire’s relations with its neighbours in Christian Europe. Drawing on Central European sources, this study highlights the deep political, religious, and cultural entanglements between the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe beyond the Mediterranean Basin as the ‘shared world’ par excellence. The existence of such trans-imperial subjects is symptomatic of the Empire’s ability to attract and integrate people of a great diversity of backgrounds, and also illustrates the extent to which the Ottomans participated in processes of religious polarization considered typical of Christian Europe. Christian Europeans remained ambivalent about those they dismissed as apostates and traitors, frequently relying on them for support in the pursuit of familial and political interests.
Simon Mills
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198840336
- eISBN:
- 9780191875915
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198840336.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship between England and the Ottoman Empire, c.1600–1760 tells the story of three generations of Church of England chaplains who served the ...
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A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship between England and the Ottoman Empire, c.1600–1760 tells the story of three generations of Church of England chaplains who served the English Levant Company in Aleppo, Syria, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book reconstructs the careers of its protagonists in the cosmopolitan city of Ottoman Aleppo, and brings to light the links between English commercial and diplomatic expansion and English scholarly and missionary interests: the study of Middle-Eastern languages; the exploration of biblical and Greco-Roman antiquities; and the early dissemination of Protestant literature in Arabic. Early modern Orientalism is usually conceived as an episode in the history of scholarship. By shifting the focus to Aleppo, A Commerce of Knowledge draws attention to connections between the seemingly aloof world of the early modern university and spheres of commercial and diplomatic life, tracing the emergence of new kinds of philological and archaeological enquiry in England back to a series of real-world encounters between the chaplains and the scribes, booksellers, priests, rabbis, and sheikhs whom they encountered in the Ottoman Empire. Setting the careers of its protagonists against a background of broader developments across Protestant and Catholic Europe, the book shows how the institutionalization of English scholarship, and the later English attempt to influence the Eastern Christian churches, were bound up with the international struggle to establish a commercial foothold in the Levant. It then argues that these connections would endure until the shift of British commercial and imperial interests to the Indian subcontinent in the second half of the eighteenth century fostered new currents of intellectual life at home.Less
A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship between England and the Ottoman Empire, c.1600–1760 tells the story of three generations of Church of England chaplains who served the English Levant Company in Aleppo, Syria, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The book reconstructs the careers of its protagonists in the cosmopolitan city of Ottoman Aleppo, and brings to light the links between English commercial and diplomatic expansion and English scholarly and missionary interests: the study of Middle-Eastern languages; the exploration of biblical and Greco-Roman antiquities; and the early dissemination of Protestant literature in Arabic. Early modern Orientalism is usually conceived as an episode in the history of scholarship. By shifting the focus to Aleppo, A Commerce of Knowledge draws attention to connections between the seemingly aloof world of the early modern university and spheres of commercial and diplomatic life, tracing the emergence of new kinds of philological and archaeological enquiry in England back to a series of real-world encounters between the chaplains and the scribes, booksellers, priests, rabbis, and sheikhs whom they encountered in the Ottoman Empire. Setting the careers of its protagonists against a background of broader developments across Protestant and Catholic Europe, the book shows how the institutionalization of English scholarship, and the later English attempt to influence the Eastern Christian churches, were bound up with the international struggle to establish a commercial foothold in the Levant. It then argues that these connections would endure until the shift of British commercial and imperial interests to the Indian subcontinent in the second half of the eighteenth century fostered new currents of intellectual life at home.
Brent S. Sirota
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300167108
- eISBN:
- 9780300199277
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300167108.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter considers the effect of postrevolutionary Anglican benevolence on the structure and character of British national life in the mid-eighteenth century. It argues that although reactionary ...
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This chapter considers the effect of postrevolutionary Anglican benevolence on the structure and character of British national life in the mid-eighteenth century. It argues that although reactionary forces pressed for a reclamation and reconstruction of sacerdotal authority, a burgeoning Anglican voluntary sector moved toward continuing social engagement and institutional innovation. In so doing, it fashioned works of Anglican confessionalization into monuments of national benevolence. The result was the making of modern civil society in Britain, a spilt religion: moral rather than confessional, associational rather than parochial, benevolent rather than sacramental — a space perhaps where individuals may be improved, but not saved.Less
This chapter considers the effect of postrevolutionary Anglican benevolence on the structure and character of British national life in the mid-eighteenth century. It argues that although reactionary forces pressed for a reclamation and reconstruction of sacerdotal authority, a burgeoning Anglican voluntary sector moved toward continuing social engagement and institutional innovation. In so doing, it fashioned works of Anglican confessionalization into monuments of national benevolence. The result was the making of modern civil society in Britain, a spilt religion: moral rather than confessional, associational rather than parochial, benevolent rather than sacramental — a space perhaps where individuals may be improved, but not saved.
Scott M. Manetsch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199938575
- eISBN:
- 9780199980741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199938575.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Chapter 3 explores the view of vocation and ordination held by Calvin and his colleagues. The ministers’ responsibility to proclaim the Christian gospel was of primary importance to their sense of ...
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Chapter 3 explores the view of vocation and ordination held by Calvin and his colleagues. The ministers’ responsibility to proclaim the Christian gospel was of primary importance to their sense of vocation. The chapter summarizes this public theology, and then explores the process by which ministerial candidates in Geneva were recruited, elected, and ordained to pastoral posts between 1536 and 1609. The final section of this chapter recounts the protracted struggle between the magistrates and city ministers over the prerogative of pastoral election (as seen in the affair of Michel Le Faucheur), and considers it in light of the contemporary model of confessionalization.Less
Chapter 3 explores the view of vocation and ordination held by Calvin and his colleagues. The ministers’ responsibility to proclaim the Christian gospel was of primary importance to their sense of vocation. The chapter summarizes this public theology, and then explores the process by which ministerial candidates in Geneva were recruited, elected, and ordained to pastoral posts between 1536 and 1609. The final section of this chapter recounts the protracted struggle between the magistrates and city ministers over the prerogative of pastoral election (as seen in the affair of Michel Le Faucheur), and considers it in light of the contemporary model of confessionalization.
Azmi Bishara
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197602744
- eISBN:
- 9780197610886
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197602744.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Middle Eastern Politics
This chapter notes the parallels between the well-studied process of confessionalization in Europe and an equivalent process that took place in the Islamic World. This latter process entailed the ...
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This chapter notes the parallels between the well-studied process of confessionalization in Europe and an equivalent process that took place in the Islamic World. This latter process entailed the articulation of doctrine and ritual and the development of a religious establishment. The chapter looks at various stages of confessionalization within Sunnism and Shi’ism. It also addresses how the Ottoman–Safavid conflict accelerated the Ottomans’ development of a Sunni jurisprudential establishment based on Hanafism, even as the Shahs in Iran were building their own Imami Shi’i institution. Both institutions were hierarchical and enjoyed a division of functions between the army, the judiciary, and the fatwa-issuing apparatus. They were also closely involved in disciplining and socializing the population. Therefore, the chapter observes how the religious establishment plays an important role in the formation of a community of religion: it defines the creed, articulates it in a way comprehensible to the masses, links it with practices that invoke its historical narrative, and provides it with a canonical interpretation. It also Provides and analyses examples of confessionalization , sectionalization and sectionalization of confessions via ethnic conflict.Less
This chapter notes the parallels between the well-studied process of confessionalization in Europe and an equivalent process that took place in the Islamic World. This latter process entailed the articulation of doctrine and ritual and the development of a religious establishment. The chapter looks at various stages of confessionalization within Sunnism and Shi’ism. It also addresses how the Ottoman–Safavid conflict accelerated the Ottomans’ development of a Sunni jurisprudential establishment based on Hanafism, even as the Shahs in Iran were building their own Imami Shi’i institution. Both institutions were hierarchical and enjoyed a division of functions between the army, the judiciary, and the fatwa-issuing apparatus. They were also closely involved in disciplining and socializing the population. Therefore, the chapter observes how the religious establishment plays an important role in the formation of a community of religion: it defines the creed, articulates it in a way comprehensible to the masses, links it with practices that invoke its historical narrative, and provides it with a canonical interpretation. It also Provides and analyses examples of confessionalization , sectionalization and sectionalization of confessions via ethnic conflict.