War and Religion after Westphalia, 1648–1713

War and Religion after Westphalia, 1648–1713
Author: David Onnekink
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317000528

Many historians consider the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648, to mark a watershed in European international relations. It is generally agreed that Westphalia brought to an end more than a century of religious conflicts and marked the beginning of a new era in which secular power politics was the prime motivating factor in international relations and warfare. The purpose of this volume is to question this assumption and reconceptualise the relationship between war, foreign policy and religion during the period 1648 to 1713. Some of the contributions to the volume directly challenge the idea that religion ceased to play a role in war and foreign policy. Others confirm the traditional view that religion did not play a dominant role after 1648, but seek to re-evaluate its significance and thereby redefine religious influences on policy in this period. By exploring this issue from various perspectives, the volume offers a unique opportunity to reassess the influence of religion in international politics. It also yields deeper insights into concepts of secularisation, and complements the research of many social and cultural historians who have begun to challenge the idea of a decline in the influence of religion in domestic politics and society. By matching the relationship between conflict and religion with this scholarship a more nuanced appreciation of the European situation begins to emerge.

1648

1648
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 735
Release: 1998
Genre:
ISBN: 9783887891282

Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague

Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague
Author: Suzanna Ivanič
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-06-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192654381

Prague in the seventeenth century is known as home to a scintillating imperial court crammed with exotic goods, scientists, and artisans, receiving ambassadors from Persia, and also as a city suffering plagues, riots, and devastating military attacks. But Prague was also the setting for a complex and shifting spiritual world. At the beginning of the century it was a multiconfessional city, but by 1700 it represented one of the most archetypical Catholic cities in Europe. Through a material approach, Cosmos and Materiality pieces together how early modern men and women experienced this transformation on a daily basis. Cosmos and Materiality in Early Modern Prague presents a bold alternative understanding of the history of early modern religion in Central Europe. The history of religion in the early modern period has overwhelmingly been analysed through a confessional lens, but this book shows how Prague's spiritual worlds were embedded in their natural environment and social relations as much if not more than in confessional identity in the seventeenth century. While texts in this period trace emerging discourses around notions of religion, superstition, magic, and what it was to be Catholic or Protestant, a material approach avoids these category mistakes being applied to everyday practice. It is through a rich seam of material evidence in Prague - spoons, glass beakers, and amulets as much as traditional devotional objects like rosaries and garnet encrusted crucifixes - that everyday beliefs, practices, and identities can be recovered.