Religion and Culture in Germany: (1400 - 1800)The late Bob Scribner was one of the most original and provocative historians of the German Reformation. His truly pioneering spirit comes to light in this collection of his most recent essays. In the years before his death, Scribner explored the role of the senses in late medieval devotional culture, and wondered how the Reformation changed sensual attitudes. Further essays examine the nature of popular culture and the way the Reformation was institutionalised, considering Anabaptist ideals of the community of goods, literacy and heterodoxy, and the dynamics of power as they unfold in a case of witchcraft. The final section of the book consists of three iconoclastic essays, which, together, form a sustained assault on the argument first advanced by Max Weber that the Reformation created a rational, modern religion. Scribner shows that, far from being rationalist and anti-magical, Protestants had their own brand of magic. These fine essays are certain to spark off debate, not only among historians of the Reformation, but also among art historians and anyone interested in the nature of culture. |
Contents
Robert W Scribner A Historian of the German Reformation | 9 |
Elements of Popular Belief | 52 |
WAYS OF SEEING | 100 |
Sense | 129 |
Anticlericalism and the Cities 149 | 163 |
Pastoral Care and the Reformation in Germany | 172 |
PreModern Communism and | 195 |
Heterodoxy Literacy and Print in the Early German | 235 |
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accused Anabaptism Anabaptist Anabaptist Community anticlericalism apotropaic baptism blessed Bob Scribner boundaries Cambridge Catholic Christ Christian church clergy complex Cranach Culture and Popular custom depiction Devil devotion divine Early Modern Europe elites Erfurt Eucharist evangelical example female body fifteenth Figure gaze German German Reformation Geschichte Gwerb historians History holy HSA Weimar Reg human Hutterite Ibid images Johann late-medieval Leipzig London Luther Lutheran medieval Memmingen Menno Simons Middle Ages Mittelalter Moravia notion official oral Paitzdorf parish parishioners pastor Peasants pious Plümper political popular belief popular culture popular magic Popular Movements practice prayer pre-Reformation preacher priest problem Protestant Reformation Protestantism R.W. Scribner Reformation Germany religion religious ritual role sacramental sacred power saints Saxony Schmidt Scribner secular sensual sixteenth century social sorcery spirits Stayer supernatural symbolic Täufer tion Tom Scott town council tradition urban village Virgin visual Volkskunde witch witchcraft women Württemberg Zimmermann Zwingli