Studies in the field of popular religion have for some time been among the most innovative in social and cultural history, but until now there have been few publications providing any adequate overview for Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. This volume presents the results of recent research by younger scholars working on major aspects of this subject. The nine essays range over nearly four centuries of German history, encompassing late-medieval female piety, propaganda for radical Hussite dissent, attitudes towards the Jews, legitimation for the witchcraze on the eve of the Reformation, attempts to implement Protestant reform in German villages, Reformation attacks on popular magic and female culture, problems of defining the Reformation in small German towns, Protestant popular prophecy and formation of confessional identity, and the missionising strategies of the Counter-Reformation.

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.

(Peeters 1998)

Sharot (sociology, Ben-Gurion U. of the Neger) focuses on the differences and interrelationships between religious elites and lay masses. He presents several relevant concepts and theories including a model of religious action based on the work of Max Weber, and a discussion of elites and masses as represented in Weber's comparison of world religions. Coverage encompasses religious action in world religions; Brahmans, Renouncers, and Hinduisim in India; Buddhism and Animism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; traditional Catholicism in Europe; Islam and Judaism; Protestants, Catholics and the reform of popular religion; and a comparison of religious elites and popular religions. c. Book News Inc.

This collection of essays focuses on the diverse interactions between religious and commercial practices in U.S. history. Studying religion and the marketplace from various angles, each chapter offers insights into a long and intimate relationship between two aspects of American culture.

This volume brings together some of the most exciting new scholarship on these themes, and thus pays tribute to the ground-breaking work of Charles Zika. Seventeen interdisciplinary essays offer new insights into the materiality and belief systems of early modern religious cultures as found in artworks, books, fragmentary texts and even in Protestant ‘relics’. Some contributions reassess communal and individual responses to cases of possession, others focus on witchcraft and manifestations of the disordered natural world. Canonical figures and events, from Martin Luther to the Salem witch trials, are looked at afresh. Collectively, these essays demonstrate how cultural and interdisciplinary trends in religious history illuminate the experiences of early modern Europeans. Contributors: Susan Broomhall, Heather Dalton, Dagmar Eichberger, Peter Howard, E. J. Kent, Brian P. Levack, Dolly MacKinnon, Louise Marshall, Donna Merwick, Leigh T.I. Penman, Shelley Perlove, Lyndal Roper, Peter Sherlock, Larry Silver, Patricia Simons, Jennifer Spinks, Hans de Waardt and Alexandra Walsham.

From 1872 to 1917 legislation banned Jesuits from Imperial Germany. Believing the Jesuits sought to control the social, political, and religious realms, the Protestant bourgeoisie championed the ban and promoted a politics of paranoia against the Jesuits. By exploiting widespread fears of the "specter" of Jesuitism, Protestants pushed their own confessional, nationalist, and often liberal agenda. Author Roisin Healy charts the path of anti-Jesuitism against the background of society, politics, and religion in Imperial Germany. The core of the book is evenly divided between an analysis of the political struggle over the passage, gradual dilution, and eventual repeal of the Jesuit Law and the main themes of anti-Jesuitism: the order's internationalism, moral theology, and scholarship. This book will interest all scholars of modern Germany, particularly those specializing in religion, nationalism, liberalism, and political mobilization.