St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute Theseshttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/1692024-03-25T13:30:23Z2024-03-25T13:30:23ZCommunicating Lutheranism : church building in an age of orthodoxy, 1555-1618Schofield, Neale Denishttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/292192024-02-13T09:53:37Z2022-06-16T00:00:00ZMartin Luther’s preaching and books transformed the small town of Wittenberg into the home of the Protestant Reformation. Yet, Wittenberg’s dependence on Luther has prompted scholarship to question the town’s world-historical significance after his death. This thesis discusses the role of Wittenberg’s print trade in shaping the Protestant church between 1555 and 1618. It describes a changing book market and identifies the factors contributing to its commercial success and the city’s ongoing religious influence. We focus on the careers of printers, publishers and booksellers who helped embed the teachings of the Reformation by working with university theologians and political leaders to publish Lutheran books. The results were remarkable. Wittenberg became the leading German publishing city, nearly doubling its annual output of new editions compared to the Reformation period. Discoveries from research in German archives and libraries shed new light on Wittenberg’s printing history and the contribution of different occupational groups within the book trades. This study examines the role of printing and printers in the confessional battles between German universities. Wittenberg’s books, especially academic dissertations, became the spearhead for establishing Lutheran orthodoxy in the early seventeenth century. The book’s preface was used polemically, leaving the contents of the book to express the tenets of faith. Each chapter introduces significant figures in the development of Wittenberg’s book trades: Samuel Selfisch, Hans Lufft, Christoph Walther, Johann Krafft, Conrad Ruhel and Johann Gormann. The outcome of this study is that the essential role of Wittenberg’s print trade in building the church is recognised for a crucial era of Wittenberg’s Reformation history that, to this point, has been relatively neglected. The book industry played an important part in ensuring that Wittenberg retained its position as the intellectual home of Lutheranism after the death of its talismanic leader.
2022-06-16T00:00:00ZSchofield, Neale DenisMartin Luther’s preaching and books transformed the small town of Wittenberg into the home of the Protestant Reformation. Yet, Wittenberg’s dependence on Luther has prompted scholarship to question the town’s world-historical significance after his death. This thesis discusses the role of Wittenberg’s print trade in shaping the Protestant church between 1555 and 1618. It describes a changing book market and identifies the factors contributing to its commercial success and the city’s ongoing religious influence. We focus on the careers of printers, publishers and booksellers who helped embed the teachings of the Reformation by working with university theologians and political leaders to publish Lutheran books. The results were remarkable. Wittenberg became the leading German publishing city, nearly doubling its annual output of new editions compared to the Reformation period. Discoveries from research in German archives and libraries shed new light on Wittenberg’s printing history and the contribution of different occupational groups within the book trades. This study examines the role of printing and printers in the confessional battles between German universities. Wittenberg’s books, especially academic dissertations, became the spearhead for establishing Lutheran orthodoxy in the early seventeenth century. The book’s preface was used polemically, leaving the contents of the book to express the tenets of faith. Each chapter introduces significant figures in the development of Wittenberg’s book trades: Samuel Selfisch, Hans Lufft, Christoph Walther, Johann Krafft, Conrad Ruhel and Johann Gormann. The outcome of this study is that the essential role of Wittenberg’s print trade in building the church is recognised for a crucial era of Wittenberg’s Reformation history that, to this point, has been relatively neglected. The book industry played an important part in ensuring that Wittenberg retained its position as the intellectual home of Lutheranism after the death of its talismanic leader.Women as book producers : the case of NurembergFarrell-Jobst, Jessica Jadehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/292112024-02-13T03:01:21Z2022-06-16T00:00:00ZThis thesis explores the multifaceted roles in which women participated in the early modern book trade. Focusing on Nuremberg, home to many successful bookwomen, it examines how they crafted work identities and exercised agency in the printing trades, emphasizing the centrality of the family unit. This thesis reveals that not only were women involved in the book trade more frequently than hitherto acknowledged but that their participation was varied and often invisible. Locality is key to understanding the multitude of factors that both promoted and restricted women’s work. The thesis begins by reconstructing the Nuremberg print trade, looking at the local market, censorship, and patron demands that shaped it. These considerations dictated the occupational experiences and business practises of the bookmen and bookwomen working in the trade. Chapter two explores the specific gendered and legal realities women faced while engaged in this trade. Regional marriage customs, inheritance law and guild organizations defined women’s rights to property, work and legal sovereignty. The second half of the thesis presents two case studies. Drawing on a previously unexamined collection of archival sources, the first study explores the sixteenth-century careers of Katherine Gerlachin and Catherine Dietrichin, and how they actively forged work identities separate to that of wife or widow. The second case, from the seventeenth century, inspects the Endter family business, revealing that, even when not listed on imprints, women served crucial roles in larger familial enterprises. Taken together, these chapters demonstrate that women’s work can only be fully revealed by understanding that the early modern book trade was composed of family units in which women operated as vital members. As mother, wife and daughter, women took on the jobs of craftsmen, office managers, business leaders, shareholders, investors, or a combination of these tasks to play major roles in their familial businesses.
2022-06-16T00:00:00ZFarrell-Jobst, Jessica JadeThis thesis explores the multifaceted roles in which women participated in the early modern book trade. Focusing on Nuremberg, home to many successful bookwomen, it examines how they crafted work identities and exercised agency in the printing trades, emphasizing the centrality of the family unit. This thesis reveals that not only were women involved in the book trade more frequently than hitherto acknowledged but that their participation was varied and often invisible. Locality is key to understanding the multitude of factors that both promoted and restricted women’s work. The thesis begins by reconstructing the Nuremberg print trade, looking at the local market, censorship, and patron demands that shaped it. These considerations dictated the occupational experiences and business practises of the bookmen and bookwomen working in the trade. Chapter two explores the specific gendered and legal realities women faced while engaged in this trade. Regional marriage customs, inheritance law and guild organizations defined women’s rights to property, work and legal sovereignty. The second half of the thesis presents two case studies. Drawing on a previously unexamined collection of archival sources, the first study explores the sixteenth-century careers of Katherine Gerlachin and Catherine Dietrichin, and how they actively forged work identities separate to that of wife or widow. The second case, from the seventeenth century, inspects the Endter family business, revealing that, even when not listed on imprints, women served crucial roles in larger familial enterprises. Taken together, these chapters demonstrate that women’s work can only be fully revealed by understanding that the early modern book trade was composed of family units in which women operated as vital members. As mother, wife and daughter, women took on the jobs of craftsmen, office managers, business leaders, shareholders, investors, or a combination of these tasks to play major roles in their familial businesses.Visual commonplacing : the transmission and reception of printed devotional images in Reformed EnglandEpstein, Norahttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/291772024-03-05T09:48:45Z2023-06-15T00:00:00ZThis thesis introduces the framework of ‘visual commonplacing’ as a way of analysing the
repeating illustrations printed in early modern English books and ephemera. This research
focuses on religious relief-cut images printed in the post-Reformation Tudor years and the
printers, publishers and readers who copied and reused illustrations. By situating this practice
within material, print and religious history we discover that copying was not uninspired or
derivative but functioned within a wider memory culture, where imitation was a function of
invention. Moreover, in a period marked by flashpoints of iconoclasm, repeating a religious
image already circulating in state-authorised print was a prudent choice for book producers.
This study begins by exploring the economic motivations for recycling images and traces
the most highly copied illustrations of the period from the earliest days of the Reformation to the
end of the Tudor period. The next chapter examines the alteration of woodcuts in the print shop,
showing how blocks were not fixed, but mutable surfaces where images could be reused while
replacing aspects of the iconography no longer acceptable in the current climate. Moving away
from workshop practices, the third chapter unpacks how repeating images served the mnemonic
aims of the book, by building specific meaning and associations through repetition. This is
followed by an investigation into how publishers exploited the echo chamber of early modern
print to circulate polemic images, furthering divisive religious strategies. Finally, we consider
how readers used the images printed in their books and broadsides in their own visual
commonplacing, by examining manuscript and embroidered copies and illustrations cut from one
work and repurposed in another. This thesis challenges past critiques that derided copying by
centring recycling on agents, detailing the creative and cognitive flexibility exhibited by visual
commonplacers.
2023-06-15T00:00:00ZEpstein, NoraThis thesis introduces the framework of ‘visual commonplacing’ as a way of analysing the
repeating illustrations printed in early modern English books and ephemera. This research
focuses on religious relief-cut images printed in the post-Reformation Tudor years and the
printers, publishers and readers who copied and reused illustrations. By situating this practice
within material, print and religious history we discover that copying was not uninspired or
derivative but functioned within a wider memory culture, where imitation was a function of
invention. Moreover, in a period marked by flashpoints of iconoclasm, repeating a religious
image already circulating in state-authorised print was a prudent choice for book producers.
This study begins by exploring the economic motivations for recycling images and traces
the most highly copied illustrations of the period from the earliest days of the Reformation to the
end of the Tudor period. The next chapter examines the alteration of woodcuts in the print shop,
showing how blocks were not fixed, but mutable surfaces where images could be reused while
replacing aspects of the iconography no longer acceptable in the current climate. Moving away
from workshop practices, the third chapter unpacks how repeating images served the mnemonic
aims of the book, by building specific meaning and associations through repetition. This is
followed by an investigation into how publishers exploited the echo chamber of early modern
print to circulate polemic images, furthering divisive religious strategies. Finally, we consider
how readers used the images printed in their books and broadsides in their own visual
commonplacing, by examining manuscript and embroidered copies and illustrations cut from one
work and repurposed in another. This thesis challenges past critiques that derided copying by
centring recycling on agents, detailing the creative and cognitive flexibility exhibited by visual
commonplacers.Latin books published in Paris, 1501-1540Mullins, Sophiehttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/63332020-07-01T02:02:46Z2014-06-01T00:00:00ZThis is a study of the Parisian Latin book industry in the first four decades of the sixteenth century. It challenges the assumption that the Reformation brought about a profound change in the European print world. Luther’s engagement with a mass audience is believed to have led to an increase in the number of vernacular publications produced by printers throughout Europe. This was not the case in Paris. Parisian booksellers traded on their established expertise with certain genres, such as theological texts, educational books, and works by classical authors, to maximise their readership both in Paris and farther afield.
Working in close proximity inspired the Parisian bookmen to unity and collaboration rather than enmity and direct competition. When printers, booksellers and publishers collaborated they were able to undertake bigger and riskier projects. Such projects might have involved testing new markets or technologies (such as Greek or music printing), or simply producing a book which required a high capital investment. The familial unity extended to the widows of printers, some of whom were able to capitalise on this and build substantial businesses of their own. This high level of collaboration and the continued focus on the established Latin market give the Parisian book world its very specific character. It also helped Paris build an international reputation for high-quality books.
2014-06-01T00:00:00ZMullins, SophieThis is a study of the Parisian Latin book industry in the first four decades of the sixteenth century. It challenges the assumption that the Reformation brought about a profound change in the European print world. Luther’s engagement with a mass audience is believed to have led to an increase in the number of vernacular publications produced by printers throughout Europe. This was not the case in Paris. Parisian booksellers traded on their established expertise with certain genres, such as theological texts, educational books, and works by classical authors, to maximise their readership both in Paris and farther afield.
Working in close proximity inspired the Parisian bookmen to unity and collaboration rather than enmity and direct competition. When printers, booksellers and publishers collaborated they were able to undertake bigger and riskier projects. Such projects might have involved testing new markets or technologies (such as Greek or music printing), or simply producing a book which required a high capital investment. The familial unity extended to the widows of printers, some of whom were able to capitalise on this and build substantial businesses of their own. This high level of collaboration and the continued focus on the established Latin market give the Parisian book world its very specific character. It also helped Paris build an international reputation for high-quality books.The cult of Corpus Christi in early modern Bavaria : pilgrimages, processions, and confraternities between 1550 and 1750Pentzlin, Nadja Irmgardhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/63252020-04-02T02:03:17Z2015-06-25T00:00:00ZTransubstantiation and the cult of Corpus Christi became crucial Counter-Reformation symbols which were assigned an even more significant role during the process of Catholic renewal from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. Practices outside Mass, such as pilgrimages, processions, and prayers in front of the consecrated host flourished, in particular, in early modern Bavaria. The former Duchy of Bavaria has generally been regarded as the archetypal ‘confessional’ state, as the Bavarian dukes from the House of Wittelsbach took the lead in propagating the cult of the Eucharist. They acted as patrons of Baroque Catholicism which was presented to the public as an obvious visual marker of Catholic identity. This study therefore investigates how the Eucharist was popularised in the Catholic duchy between 1550 and 1750, focusing on three major themes: pilgrimages, confraternities, and the Corpus Christi procession.
This study does not, however, approach the renewal of Catholicism in terms of a top-down process implemented by the Wittelsbach dukes as a method of stately power and control. Rather than arguing in favour of a state-sponsored piety imposed from above, this work explores the formation of Catholic confessional identity as a two-way-process of binding together elite and popular piety, and emphasizes the active role of the populace in constituting this identity. This is why this investigation draws primarily on research from local archives, using a rich body of both textual and visual evidence. Focusing especially on the visual aspects of Catholic piety, this project works towards an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand the ways in which Eucharistic devotion outside Mass was presented to and received by local communities within particular visual environments.
2015-06-25T00:00:00ZPentzlin, Nadja IrmgardTransubstantiation and the cult of Corpus Christi became crucial Counter-Reformation symbols which were assigned an even more significant role during the process of Catholic renewal from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. Practices outside Mass, such as pilgrimages, processions, and prayers in front of the consecrated host flourished, in particular, in early modern Bavaria. The former Duchy of Bavaria has generally been regarded as the archetypal ‘confessional’ state, as the Bavarian dukes from the House of Wittelsbach took the lead in propagating the cult of the Eucharist. They acted as patrons of Baroque Catholicism which was presented to the public as an obvious visual marker of Catholic identity. This study therefore investigates how the Eucharist was popularised in the Catholic duchy between 1550 and 1750, focusing on three major themes: pilgrimages, confraternities, and the Corpus Christi procession.
This study does not, however, approach the renewal of Catholicism in terms of a top-down process implemented by the Wittelsbach dukes as a method of stately power and control. Rather than arguing in favour of a state-sponsored piety imposed from above, this work explores the formation of Catholic confessional identity as a two-way-process of binding together elite and popular piety, and emphasizes the active role of the populace in constituting this identity. This is why this investigation draws primarily on research from local archives, using a rich body of both textual and visual evidence. Focusing especially on the visual aspects of Catholic piety, this project works towards an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand the ways in which Eucharistic devotion outside Mass was presented to and received by local communities within particular visual environments.Propaganda and persuasion in the early Scottish Reformation, c.1527-1557Tapscott, Elizabeth L.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/41152019-07-01T10:12:21Z2013-11-30T00:00:00ZThe decades before the Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560 witnessed the unprecedented use of a range of different media to disseminate the Protestant message and to shape beliefs and attitudes. By placing these works within their historical context, this thesis explores the ways in which various media – academic discourse, courtly entertainments, printed poetry, public performances, preaching and pedagogical tools – were employed by evangelical and Protestant reformers to persuade and/or educate different audiences within sixteenth-century Scottish society. The thematic approach examines not only how the reformist message was packaged, but how the movement itself and its persuasive agenda developed, revealing the ways in which it appealed to ever broader circles of Scottish society.
In their efforts to bring about religious change, the reformers capitalised on a number of traditional media, while using different media to address different audiences. Hoping to initiate reform from within Church institutions, the reformers first addressed their appeals to the kingdom’s educated elite. When their attempts at reasoned academic discourse met with resistance, they turned their attention to the monarch, James V, and the royal court. Reformers within the court utilised courtly entertainments intended to amuse the royal circle and to influence the young king to oversee the reformation of religion within his realm. When, following James’s untimely death in 1542, the throne passed to his infant daughter, the reformers took advantage of the period of uncertainty that accompanied the minority. Through the relatively new technology of print, David Lindsay’s poetry and English propaganda presented the reformist message to audiences beyond the kingdom’s elite. Lindsay and other reformers also exploited the oral media of religious theatre in public spaces, while preaching was one of the most theologically significant, though under-researched, means of disseminating the reformist message. In addition to works intended to convert, the reformers also recognised the need for literature to edify the already converted. To this end, they produced pedagogical tools for use in individual and group devotions. Through the examination of these various media of persuasion, this study contributes to our understanding of the means by which reformed ideas were disseminated in Scotland, as well as the development of the reformist movement before 1560.
2013-11-30T00:00:00ZTapscott, Elizabeth L.The decades before the Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560 witnessed the unprecedented use of a range of different media to disseminate the Protestant message and to shape beliefs and attitudes. By placing these works within their historical context, this thesis explores the ways in which various media – academic discourse, courtly entertainments, printed poetry, public performances, preaching and pedagogical tools – were employed by evangelical and Protestant reformers to persuade and/or educate different audiences within sixteenth-century Scottish society. The thematic approach examines not only how the reformist message was packaged, but how the movement itself and its persuasive agenda developed, revealing the ways in which it appealed to ever broader circles of Scottish society.
In their efforts to bring about religious change, the reformers capitalised on a number of traditional media, while using different media to address different audiences. Hoping to initiate reform from within Church institutions, the reformers first addressed their appeals to the kingdom’s educated elite. When their attempts at reasoned academic discourse met with resistance, they turned their attention to the monarch, James V, and the royal court. Reformers within the court utilised courtly entertainments intended to amuse the royal circle and to influence the young king to oversee the reformation of religion within his realm. When, following James’s untimely death in 1542, the throne passed to his infant daughter, the reformers took advantage of the period of uncertainty that accompanied the minority. Through the relatively new technology of print, David Lindsay’s poetry and English propaganda presented the reformist message to audiences beyond the kingdom’s elite. Lindsay and other reformers also exploited the oral media of religious theatre in public spaces, while preaching was one of the most theologically significant, though under-researched, means of disseminating the reformist message. In addition to works intended to convert, the reformers also recognised the need for literature to edify the already converted. To this end, they produced pedagogical tools for use in individual and group devotions. Through the examination of these various media of persuasion, this study contributes to our understanding of the means by which reformed ideas were disseminated in Scotland, as well as the development of the reformist movement before 1560.The Bernese disputations of 1532 and 1538 : a historical and theological analysisEccher, Stephen Bretthttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/25662019-04-01T11:12:34Z2011-11-01T00:00:00ZGiven the relative paucity of treatments relating to both the 1532 and 1538 Bern Gespräche, alongside a growing historiography which has offered a clearer understanding of the backdrop around which these two debates were held, the focus of this research project will be to provide a comparative analysis of the recorded dialogues from the debates at Bern. This ecclesiologically focused comparison aims to discern whether the debate relating to the nature of the church at the 1538 session was merely a redundant exercise and continuation of the earlier 1532 disputation or whether the latter debate offered anything substantively new to the ongoing religious dialogue between these two groups. Furthermore, all of the respective views on the nature of the church manifest in these debates will be examined in light of the preceding Anabaptist/Reformed dialogue of the period to determine their place contextually.
Having embarked upon the aforementioned goals several conclusions may be definitively drawn. First, the major ecclesiological suppositions expressed by both the Anabaptist and Reformed participants at the 1538 debate were, in fact, retained using the same core theological elements employed by their predecessors at the 1532 debate. Yet, despite this striking similarity, the independent nature of these debates must also be acknowledged. This may primarily be found in that both groups expressed their retained ecclesiologies with notable variation in things such as language, argumentative content, biblical corroboration, and illustrative evidence. Finally, both the similar and independent nature of these events will be shown to have been largely derived from the Anabaptist/Reformed dialogue already begun as the Swiss Brethren movement emerged from under Zwingli’s reform efforts in Zürich. Each of these conclusions should help to paint a more accurate portrait of not only what was accomplished through these debates, but where each stands contextually during the period.
2011-11-01T00:00:00ZEccher, Stephen BrettGiven the relative paucity of treatments relating to both the 1532 and 1538 Bern Gespräche, alongside a growing historiography which has offered a clearer understanding of the backdrop around which these two debates were held, the focus of this research project will be to provide a comparative analysis of the recorded dialogues from the debates at Bern. This ecclesiologically focused comparison aims to discern whether the debate relating to the nature of the church at the 1538 session was merely a redundant exercise and continuation of the earlier 1532 disputation or whether the latter debate offered anything substantively new to the ongoing religious dialogue between these two groups. Furthermore, all of the respective views on the nature of the church manifest in these debates will be examined in light of the preceding Anabaptist/Reformed dialogue of the period to determine their place contextually.
Having embarked upon the aforementioned goals several conclusions may be definitively drawn. First, the major ecclesiological suppositions expressed by both the Anabaptist and Reformed participants at the 1538 debate were, in fact, retained using the same core theological elements employed by their predecessors at the 1532 debate. Yet, despite this striking similarity, the independent nature of these debates must also be acknowledged. This may primarily be found in that both groups expressed their retained ecclesiologies with notable variation in things such as language, argumentative content, biblical corroboration, and illustrative evidence. Finally, both the similar and independent nature of these events will be shown to have been largely derived from the Anabaptist/Reformed dialogue already begun as the Swiss Brethren movement emerged from under Zwingli’s reform efforts in Zürich. Each of these conclusions should help to paint a more accurate portrait of not only what was accomplished through these debates, but where each stands contextually during the period.The Reformation in Fife, 1560-1640McCallum, Johnhttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/6382019-07-01T10:16:33Z2008-11-27T00:00:00ZThis thesis traces the establishment and development of a functioning reformed
church in the parishes of Fife after the official Reformation of 1560. Based
principally on archival sources, especially the records of the kirk sessions which
governed the church at parish level, it examines how ecclesiastical institutions
developed and interacted with laypeople, and evaluates the progress made in the
challenging task of inculcating Protestant values and identity in Fife’s parishioners.
The first section examines the development of the reformed church in three chapters
on the parish ministry, church discipline, and reformed worship respectively. The
progress made in providing parish ministers and establishing kirk sessions was
hesitant, and it took several decades before the church’s institutions were functioning
healthily across Fife. This gradual process of reformation was not what the original
reformers wanted, but it may have in fact eased the transition to the more firmly
Protestant parish culture that emerged around the turn of the century.
The second section looks more thematically at three key aspects of the church,
focusing mainly on this latter period. The fourth chapter analyses the ministry as a
profession, while the fifth chapter goes on to discuss the efforts made to instruct the
laity in more detailed Protestant understandings from the 1590s onwards. The sixth
and final chapter returns to the subject of discipline, describing the main targets of the
disciplinary regime and evaluating the effectiveness of discipline. The church that
emerged in the seventeenth century was relatively healthy, staffed by a stable and
well-educated ministry, and was starting to make much stronger efforts to educate and
discipline the laypeople of Fife.
The thesis concludes that while the Scottish Reformation still emerges as an
ultimately successful transformation, the path to religious change was more
complicated than has been appreciated by historians.
2008-11-27T00:00:00ZMcCallum, JohnThis thesis traces the establishment and development of a functioning reformed
church in the parishes of Fife after the official Reformation of 1560. Based
principally on archival sources, especially the records of the kirk sessions which
governed the church at parish level, it examines how ecclesiastical institutions
developed and interacted with laypeople, and evaluates the progress made in the
challenging task of inculcating Protestant values and identity in Fife’s parishioners.
The first section examines the development of the reformed church in three chapters
on the parish ministry, church discipline, and reformed worship respectively. The
progress made in providing parish ministers and establishing kirk sessions was
hesitant, and it took several decades before the church’s institutions were functioning
healthily across Fife. This gradual process of reformation was not what the original
reformers wanted, but it may have in fact eased the transition to the more firmly
Protestant parish culture that emerged around the turn of the century.
The second section looks more thematically at three key aspects of the church,
focusing mainly on this latter period. The fourth chapter analyses the ministry as a
profession, while the fifth chapter goes on to discuss the efforts made to instruct the
laity in more detailed Protestant understandings from the 1590s onwards. The sixth
and final chapter returns to the subject of discipline, describing the main targets of the
disciplinary regime and evaluating the effectiveness of discipline. The church that
emerged in the seventeenth century was relatively healthy, staffed by a stable and
well-educated ministry, and was starting to make much stronger efforts to educate and
discipline the laypeople of Fife.
The thesis concludes that while the Scottish Reformation still emerges as an
ultimately successful transformation, the path to religious change was more
complicated than has been appreciated by historians.Church & society in eighteenth-century Geneva, 1700-1789Powell McNutt, Jennifer R.https://hdl.handle.net/10023/4772017-04-10T11:52:17Z2008-06-26T00:00:00ZThis doctoral thesis, entitled “Church & Society in Eighteenth-Century Geneva, 1700-1789”, will seek to reappraise the relationship between religion and the Enlightenment through the context of eighteenth-century Geneva. Based on the perspectives of the philosophes, historians have generally understood the Enlightenment as the source of secularization and a period of religious decline. However, more recent work has begun to reassess the developments of religion in the eighteenth century beyond the philosophes, resulting in an increasingly multi-faceted picture of religion in the age of Enlightenment. This thesis will contribute to that revisionist effort.
Eighteenth-century Geneva offers an intriguing example because it allows one to observe the encounter of the Reformation and the Enlightenment in the figurative meeting between Calvin and Voltaire. With that in mind, this work will re-examine the legacy of Calvin from 1700 to 1789 through a socio-historical and theological approach in order to analyze the functioning of religious life in Genevan society, the theological content and development of preaching and worship, and the clerical responses to incidents of conflict in relation to the government and the philosophes. The near totality of this research has stemmed from the study of manuscript sources within the Genevan archives, such as sermons, church and government records, and official and personal correspondence. Through the perspective of Geneva’s church and clergy, a far more complex picture of the dynamic between religion and the Enlightenment will emerge supporting the understanding that the Enlightenment occurred differently in different contexts and challenging the widespread attribution of the secularization theory and the decline of religion thesis to the eighteenth century.
2008-06-26T00:00:00ZPowell McNutt, Jennifer R.This doctoral thesis, entitled “Church & Society in Eighteenth-Century Geneva, 1700-1789”, will seek to reappraise the relationship between religion and the Enlightenment through the context of eighteenth-century Geneva. Based on the perspectives of the philosophes, historians have generally understood the Enlightenment as the source of secularization and a period of religious decline. However, more recent work has begun to reassess the developments of religion in the eighteenth century beyond the philosophes, resulting in an increasingly multi-faceted picture of religion in the age of Enlightenment. This thesis will contribute to that revisionist effort.
Eighteenth-century Geneva offers an intriguing example because it allows one to observe the encounter of the Reformation and the Enlightenment in the figurative meeting between Calvin and Voltaire. With that in mind, this work will re-examine the legacy of Calvin from 1700 to 1789 through a socio-historical and theological approach in order to analyze the functioning of religious life in Genevan society, the theological content and development of preaching and worship, and the clerical responses to incidents of conflict in relation to the government and the philosophes. The near totality of this research has stemmed from the study of manuscript sources within the Genevan archives, such as sermons, church and government records, and official and personal correspondence. Through the perspective of Geneva’s church and clergy, a far more complex picture of the dynamic between religion and the Enlightenment will emerge supporting the understanding that the Enlightenment occurred differently in different contexts and challenging the widespread attribution of the secularization theory and the decline of religion thesis to the eighteenth century.