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The reign of Maximilian I was crucial in the development of the early modern constitution of the Reich. The political reform process was, however, part of a wider reform movement that also aspired to reform the church. However, the existence of an imperial church, which the ecclesiastical princes had a vested interest in preserving, made this unlikely. At the same time the pressure for reform increased under the impact of religious renewal movements and of the growing social unrest in both urban and rural areas. The popular grievances were taken up by humanist scholars and writers and transformed into a general reform agenda. They were the first generation of intellectuals to use the newly invented print media. Finally, the scene is set for the emergence of Luther who united many of the disparate reform agendas and transformed them into an explosive force.

This chapter examines the emergence of new religious movements in colonial New Zealand and Africa. The movements for reformation, renewal, innovation, and independent churches in these two British colonies took on various forms. These include religious movements that responded to land conquest, challenges to mission denominations, millenarian movements that appeared to challenge the colonial state, and spirit churches that addressed health concerns.

This chapter examines the relations between Christian missions and the British Indian Empire or the British Raj. When missionaries gained access to East India their efforts brought counter-currents of religious renewal, social reform, and the eventual rise of nationalism. The Christian missions often attracted their greatest followings where their connection to imperial authority was least in evidence. Thus, dissenting and non-British Christian missions succeeded while missions that were closely associated with the Anglican establishment faltered.

Given the importance of religion in social interaction and identity formation in the Middle East as whole, this chapter explores several questions in the area of Arab religious devotion and religious discourse. How does religion contribute to building and shaping society? To what extent does the role of religion re?ect theory and history? How are clerics trained, and what challenges do they face? To what extent does religion express identity? What mechanisms have Muslim communities developed to preserve their identity? What role did religion play in the Arab Spring? What does the future relationship between religion and politics look like? The main issue this chapter addresses is whether the contexts that in?uence the formation of religious ?gures and ordinary people in the Arab region provide incentives that positively and effectively contribute to human development. The increasing voices in the media and from well-established religious institutions such as al-Azhar or al-Zeitouna demanding renewal of religious discourse confirm the basic premise of this chapter.

Cola di Rienzo and his supporters produced the first fruit of their labors: the proclamation of the Ordinances of the buono stato. The ordinances indicate that the buono stato anticipated armed resistance from the barons. It intended to make good its promises to the cavallerotti to retake effective control of cities and lands within the Roman district. Cola's buono stato seems to have taken up contemporary meanings of the condition of good government but to have joined them with the rich connotations of religious renewal and reform. Justice was visibly and forcefully the most tangible effect of the buono stato. The ideal civitas whose liberation and renewal Cola had described in terms borrowed directly from the Apocalypse.

This chapter examines the contribution of the nonjurors to the social thought of postrevolutionary Anglican high churchmanship, specifically their central notion of the Church of England as a “distinct society” irreducible to either state or voluntary association. The burgeoning influence of nonjuring ecclesiological principles infused the broader Anglican high-church movement with visions of religious renewal markedly different from those pursued by the Anglican voluntary sector.