Doctrinal Controversy and Lay Religiosity in Late Reformation Germany

Doctrinal Controversy and Lay Religiosity in Late Reformation Germany
Author: Robert J. Christman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2011-10-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004215654

Using evidence generated by the Flacian controversy over original sin as it transpired in the German territory of Mansfeld, this study demonstrates that by the late sixteenth century, much of the laity there had developed a complex understanding of Lutheran doctrine.

Doctrinal Controversy and Lay Religiosity in Late Reformation Germany

Doctrinal Controversy and Lay Religiosity in Late Reformation Germany
Author: Robert J. Christman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2011-10-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004215662

In recent years, historians have questioned the notion that belief was central to the Reformation’s success, arguing rather for a variety of social, political, economic, and psychological forces. This study examines one of the intra-Lutheran doctrinal debates, the Flacian controversy over original sin, as means to analyze lay religiosity in the late Reformation. It focuses on the German territory of Mansfeld, where the conflict had miners brawling in the streets, and where a wealth of sources from the laity have survived. This extraordinary evidence demonstrates that although diverse forces were at work, by the late sixteenth century many commoners had developed a complex understanding of Lutheran doctrines, and these beliefs had become informing factors in the laity’s lives.

Celestial Wonders in Reformation Germany

Celestial Wonders in Reformation Germany
Author: Ken Kurihara
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317318730

Celestial phenomena were often harnessed for use by clerics in early modern Germany. Kurihara examines how and why interest in these events grew in this period, how the clergy exploited these beliefs and the role of sectarianism in Germany at this time.

A Cloister on Trial

A Cloister on Trial
Author: Gabriella Erdélyi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317188772

In 1517, the usually tranquil friary in the Hungarian town of Körmend found itself at the centre of controversy when its Augustinian friars, charged with drunkenness, sexual abuses and liturgical negligence, were driven out and replaced with observant Franciscans. The agent of change in this conflict, cardinal Thomas Bakócz, claimed to be acting in the name of ’cloister reform’ motivated by a religious agenda, while the Augustinians portrayed themselves as the victims of a political game. Based on the surviving interrogations of a papal enquiry into these events, this book illuminates the tensions and potential conflict that lurked within the religious culture of a seemingly unremarkable and remote town. The story of the friary trial of Körmend provides a fascinating window into religion and society of Europe at the dawn of the Reformation, investigating the processes by which ordinary people emerge as historical agents from the written records. By focussing on their experiences as represented in the trial documents the book reveals the spaces and borders of individual and communal action within the dynamic of lay-clerical relations negotiated in a friary reform at the beginning of the 16th century. Furthermore, the moral nature of the accusations levelled at the Augustinians - and whether these were justified or instigated for political reasons - offers further insights into the nature of late-medieval Catholicism and the claims of Protestant reformers.

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany

Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany
Author: Kat Hill
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191047961

When Martin Luther mounted his challenge to the Catholic Church, reform stimulated a range of responses, including radical solutions such as those proposed by theologians of the Anabaptist movement. But how did ordinary Anabaptists, men and women, grapple with the theological and emotional challenges of the Lutheran Reformation? Anabaptism developed along unique lines in the Lutheran heartlands in central Germany, where the movement was made up of scattered groups and did not centre on charismatic leaders as it did elsewhere. Ideas were spread more often by word of mouth than by print, and many Anabaptists had uneven attachment to the movement, recanting and then relapsing. Historiography has neglected Anabaptism in this area, since it had no famous leaders and does not seem to have been numerically strong. Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief challenges these assumptions, revealing how Anabaptism's development in central Germany was fundamentally influenced by its interaction with Lutheran theology. In doing so, it sets a new agenda for understandings of Anabaptism in central Germany, as ordinary individuals created new forms of piety which mingled ideas about brotherhood, baptism, the Eucharist, and gender and sex. Anabaptism in this region was not an isolated sect but an important part of the confessional landscape of the Saxon lands, and continued to shape Lutheran pastoral affairs long after scholarship assumed it had declined. The choices these Anabaptist men and women made sat on a spectrum of solutions to religious concerns raised by the Reformation. Understanding their decisions, therefore, provides new insights into how religious identities were formed in the Reformation era.

Reformation Thought

Reformation Thought
Author: Alister E. McGrath
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-04-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1119756596

Reformation Thought Praise for previous editions: “Theologically informed, lucid, supremely accessible: no wonder McGrath’s introduction to the Reformation has staying power!” —Denis R. Janz, Loyola University “Vigorous, brisk, and highly stimulating. The reader will be thoroughly engaged from the outset, and considerably enlightened at the end.” —Dr. John Platt, Oxford University “[McGrath] is one of the best scholars and teachers of the Reformation... Teachers will rejoice in this wonderfully useful book.” —Teaching History Reformation Thought: An Introduction is a clear, engaging, and accessible introduction to the European Reformation of the sixteenth century. Written for readers with little to no knowledge of Christian theology or history, this indispensable guide surveys the ideas of the prominent thought leaders of the period, as well as its many movements, including Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anabaptism, and the Catholic and English Reformations. The text offers readers a framework to interpret the events of the Reformation in full view of the intellectual landscape and socio-political issues that fueled its development. Based on Alister McGrath’s acclaimed lecture course at Oxford University, the fully updated fifth edition incorporates the latest academic research in historical theology. Revised and expanded chapters describe the cultural backdrop of the Reformation, discuss the Reformation’s background in late Renaissance humanism and medieval scholasticism, and distill the findings of recent scholarship, including work on the history of the Christian doctrine of justification. A wealth of pedagogical features—including illustrations, updated bibliographies, a glossary, a chronology of political and historical ideas, and several appendices—supplement McGrath’s clear explanations. Written by a world-renowned theologian, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, Fifth Edition upholds its reputation as the ideal resource for university and seminary courses on Reformation thought and the widespread change it inspired in Christian belief and practice.

Archeologies of Confession

Archeologies of Confession
Author: Carina L. Johnson
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785335413

Modern religious identities are rooted in collective memories that are constantly made and remade across generations. How do these mutations of memory distort our picture of historical change and the ways that historical actors perceive it? Can one give voice to those whom history has forgotten? The essays collected here examine the formation of religious identities during the Reformation in Germany through case studies of remembering and forgetting—instances in which patterns and practices of religious plurality were excised from historical memory. By tracing their ramifications through the centuries, Archeologies of Confession carefully reconstructs the often surprising histories of plurality that have otherwise been lost or obscured.

The Devil behind the Surplice

The Devil behind the Surplice
Author: Wade Johnston
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2018-01-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498242618

Between 1548 and 1551, controversies over adiaphora, or indifferent matters, erupted in both Germany and England. Matthias Flacius Illyricus in Germany and John Hooper in England both refused to accept, among other things, the same liturgical vestment: the surplice. While Flacius' objections to the imperial liturgical requirements were largely contextual, because the vestments and rites were forced on the church and were part of a recatholicizing agenda, Hooper protested because he was convinced that disputed vestments and rites lacked a biblical basis. The Devil behind the Surplice demonstrates that, while Flacius fought to protect the reformation principle of justification by grace alone through faith alone, Hooper strove to defend the reformation principle that Scripture alone was the source and norm of Christian doctrine and practice. Ultimately, Flacius wanted more Elijahs, prophets to guide a faithful remnant, and Hooper wanted a new Josiah, a young reform king to purify the kingdom and strip it of idolatry.

Christian History in Rural Germany

Christian History in Rural Germany
Author: David Mayes
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2022-11-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004526498

Christian history in rural central Germany principally followed not a Catholic and Protestant course but rather an indigenous one, which agricultural and communal forces animated and which bifurcated in the wake of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia.