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Keywords = reformed Protestantism

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14 pages, 265 KiB  
Article
Imaginations of the Other Side: Heinrich Bullinger, the Apocalypse and the Pastoral and Exegetical Challenges of the Future
by Benedikt Brunner
Religions 2025, 16(4), 459; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16040459 - 2 Apr 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1067
Abstract
Interpretations of the Book of Revelation were extremely popular in the 16th century, not least due to the precarious situation of Protestantism in Europe. In these contexts, the Revelation of John was of utmost importance to the issue of pastoral care in the [...] Read more.
Interpretations of the Book of Revelation were extremely popular in the 16th century, not least due to the precarious situation of Protestantism in Europe. In these contexts, the Revelation of John was of utmost importance to the issue of pastoral care in the early modern period, despite the intensive discussions about its canonicity. It contained the most detailed explanations of what awaited Christians after their death and how the events of the end times would unfold until the return of Christ. The perspective of what to expect after death was of great pastoral, and therefore, theological importance. One of the most important commentaries was the ‘Hundred Sermons on the Apocalypse’ by the Zurich-born reformer Heinrich Bullinger. This article examines the biblical concepts of the future that Bullinger identified, as well as the reformer’s own emphases and their practical implications. This article combines, therefore, the flourishing history of the reception of the Bible with the history of Christian conceptions of the future—and its pastoral implications—that have yet to be applied to the Swiss Reformation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Swiss Reformation 1525–2025: New Directions)
37 pages, 876 KiB  
Article
Kongolese Sacred Sovereignties and Legalities in the Early Modern Trans-Atlantic
by Matthew Cavedon
Religions 2025, 16(4), 444; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16040444 - 29 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1229
Abstract
This article draws on political theology to provide a history of sovereignty (law-generating power) and legality (law-maintaining power) across an overlooked early modern trilogy of historical events. (1) The Kingdom of Kongo voluntarily adopted Catholicism in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Catholicism [...] Read more.
This article draws on political theology to provide a history of sovereignty (law-generating power) and legality (law-maintaining power) across an overlooked early modern trilogy of historical events. (1) The Kingdom of Kongo voluntarily adopted Catholicism in the late 1400s and early 1500s. Catholicism became a core part of its political identity and a major way through which Kongo resisted Portuguese exploitation and enslavement. However, Kongo’s compromises with Portuguese power gave rise to a heretical movement that triggered conflict, reforms, and mass enslavement and deportation. Some of those deported found themselves in South Carolina. (2) Deportees may have been part of a ditch-cutting crew at Stono that led the largest slave uprising in England’s mainland American colonies. Their Rebellion has many Kongolese characteristics and may have partly been a Kongolese Catholic response to English Protestantism. This is especially so because the rebels apparently meant to reach sanctuary in Spanish Florida. (3) Escapees from enslavement by Protestant rivals inspired Spain to offer freedom to fugitive slaves who converted to Catholicism. While Florida had a racial hierarchy and practiced slavery, its versions of these was somewhat milder due to religious and legal influences. Free Black people, especially escapees from the English, proved loyal subjects and militiamen—and Spain reciprocated with protection and inclusion. Chronicling sovereignty and legality across these three episodes is important for telling the history of how early Americans found the heart they needed to make their world less heartless. Full article
14 pages, 292 KiB  
Article
In the Clergy’s Sights: Making Anabaptists Visible in Reformed Zurich
by David Y. Neufeld
Religions 2024, 15(12), 1495; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121495 - 8 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1124
Abstract
This article examines how Reformed pastors’ understanding and exercise of their office shaped their response to Anabaptists living in rural parishes of the Swiss Confederation in the seventeenth century. In the wake of Swiss reformations, illicit Anabaptist communities continued to represent a threat [...] Read more.
This article examines how Reformed pastors’ understanding and exercise of their office shaped their response to Anabaptists living in rural parishes of the Swiss Confederation in the seventeenth century. In the wake of Swiss reformations, illicit Anabaptist communities continued to represent a threat to territorial religious unity and the Reformed clergy’s spiritual leadership, but the precise contours of their activity and social influence at a village level remained obscure. In the absence of a clear picture of dissent, Reformed churchmen endeavored to make Anabaptism visible, employing tools of information management, into which their training had initiated them. A series of cases from rural jurisdictions (the counties (Landvogteien) of Kyburg and Grüningen) and a seat of ecclesiastical power (Zurich) illustrate how documentary production, organization, and activation consistently drove this project forward. These means rendered Anabaptist life perceptible, facilitating and justifying its elimination by Reformed governments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Swiss Reformation 1525–2025: New Directions)
13 pages, 4121 KiB  
Article
Wedding, Marriage, and Matrimony—Glimpses into Concepts and Images from a Church Historical Perspective since the Reformation
by Benedikt Bauer
Religions 2024, 15(8), 938; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080938 - 1 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1510
Abstract
This contribution provides three church-historical glimpses into concepts and images that deal in different ways with the idea of the union of two parties and communicate it through media. The material under discussion is analysed from a gender perspective. Firstly, the Reformation period [...] Read more.
This contribution provides three church-historical glimpses into concepts and images that deal in different ways with the idea of the union of two parties and communicate it through media. The material under discussion is analysed from a gender perspective. Firstly, the Reformation period is discussed as a process of the valorisation of sexuality, the defence of priestly marriage by Philipp Melanchthon is examined, and attention is drawn to the so-called Oeconomialiteratur, which regulated the cohabitation of spouses. The article then turns to bridal mysticism in order to analyse the gender construction of Jesus and the male members of the Moravians on the basis of the “Kleines Brüdergesangbuch”. It is emphasised that various options can be discussed, but that the concept of a leading masculinity of Jesus is the most appropriate for the description of the multiple masculinity constructions of the specific episode of the so-called “Sichtungszeit” of this community. In a last step, the reception of images and ideas about Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther since the Reformation period will be used to discuss how their marriage and matrimony became denominational identifiers—both for Protestantism and for Catholicism. For this, the double portrait of Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther by Cranach as well as a polemical pamphlet from the time of the Thirty Years’ War and the invention of Katharina von Bora as a pastor‘s wife in the 19th century will be examined. By means of historical hermeneutics and a gender perspective, the article thus determines how media have both enabled the freedom to explore and establish new concepts and ideas as well as been used as a vehicle of regulation. In addition, the church-historical examples analysed also illustrate that wedding, marriage, and matrimony themselves became a medium to structure lives, to communicate religious and social issues, and to reject, construct, consolidate, and pass on denominational identities. Full article
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17 pages, 299 KiB  
Article
The Protestant Reformation as an Islamisation of Christianity in the Thought of Ziya Gökalp and Ali Shariati
by Javier Gil Guerrero
Religions 2024, 15(7), 850; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070850 - 15 Jul 2024
Viewed by 2184
Abstract
Following Ziya Gökalp and Ali Shariati’s assertion that Protestantism arose due to the influence of Islam in Europe in the Middle Ages, this study discusses the different discourses elaborated by the Turkish and Iranian authors based on this idea. The controversies surrounding modernity, [...] Read more.
Following Ziya Gökalp and Ali Shariati’s assertion that Protestantism arose due to the influence of Islam in Europe in the Middle Ages, this study discusses the different discourses elaborated by the Turkish and Iranian authors based on this idea. The controversies surrounding modernity, westernization, colonialism, and Islam were a constant in their writings, despite the different geographical and historical circumstances. This paper discusses the logic of Gökalp and Shariati’s claim that Protestantism was Islamized Christianity. The aim is to provide a detailed perspective on how this claim illuminates their broader thinking about civilization, culture, and religion. Full article
15 pages, 300 KiB  
Article
The Discovery of the Soul as a Place of Pilgrimage within: German Protestantism, Psychology, and Salvation through Education
by Sophie Pia Stieger and Daniel Tröhler
Religions 2023, 14(7), 921; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070921 - 17 Jul 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2102
Abstract
This article casts a spotlight on various stages of the entangled history of German Protestantism and psychology from the 16th to the 19th centuries to make visible the hitherto neglected religious past of this discipline and the educational aspirations tied to it. In [...] Read more.
This article casts a spotlight on various stages of the entangled history of German Protestantism and psychology from the 16th to the 19th centuries to make visible the hitherto neglected religious past of this discipline and the educational aspirations tied to it. In broad strokes, it retraces how the idea of psychology emerged in the wake of the Reformation and continued to be shaped by German Protestant thinkers for centuries to come. First, the article reconstructs how, after Luther, the term “psychology” came to denote Protestant attempts to construct a non-Catholic scientia de anima. The dissemination and popularization of this endeavor in the writings of German Protestants is discussed in the second section. The third and fourth sections are devoted to shifts in reasoning about the soul during the early German Enlightenment and the subsequent flourishing of attempts at establishing psychology as a scientific discipline in its later stages. Finally, the last section looks at the further “scientification of the soul” during the 19th century, which, as will be argued, was crucial to the constitution of the modern educational field in Germany. Full article
10 pages, 225 KiB  
Article
Jesus and the Cross-Centered Spirituality of the Reformation and Later Protestantism
by Calvin Lane
Religions 2023, 14(6), 790; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060790 - 14 Jun 2023
Viewed by 2459
Abstract
For all the important theological and practical diversity which emerged during the sixteenth century and later, a diversity whose legacies are still present in the forms of divided Christian bodies to this day, a uniquely medieval fascination with the cross endured. The reformation [...] Read more.
For all the important theological and practical diversity which emerged during the sixteenth century and later, a diversity whose legacies are still present in the forms of divided Christian bodies to this day, a uniquely medieval fascination with the cross endured. The reformation movements of the sixteenth century and later Protestants developed various ascetical programs and theological perspectives which were concerned with two well-worn medieval patterns: an appropriation of Jesus’s work of atonement on the cross and an internalizing of the crucified Jesus as an exemplar. Thus, if we question the kind of role Jesus played in the spirituality of the Reformation era and later Protestantism, the answer must be the cross. This cruci-centrism appears in theologies of salvation, in sermons, prayers, and hymnody, in perceptions of Christian devotional art, and in varied conceptions of the Eucharist. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Jesus and Spirituality: In Biblical and Historical Perspective)
14 pages, 278 KiB  
Article
Roamin’ Holiday: Protestants on Foot in the Eternal City
by Emily Michelson
Religions 2023, 14(5), 611; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050611 - 6 May 2023
Viewed by 1432
Abstract
This article analyses accounts of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Anglophone travellers to Rome who encountered and described Catholic rituals of walking. These visitors observed Catholic rituals such as pilgrimages and processions so closely that they came to understand the act of walking and ways [...] Read more.
This article analyses accounts of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Anglophone travellers to Rome who encountered and described Catholic rituals of walking. These visitors observed Catholic rituals such as pilgrimages and processions so closely that they came to understand the act of walking and ways of walking as expressions of religious identity. They also used the language of walking to interpret such moments of encounter in their narratives. Taken together, this evidence demonstrates the centrality of walking to their understanding of a religiously diverse Europe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Catholicism in Early Modern Italy: Gender, Space, Mobility)
16 pages, 828 KiB  
Article
‘I Said: Hymn 38!’ The Reception of the Protestant Reformation in The Netherlands at the Turn of the Millennium—The Case of ‘The White Cowboy’
by F. G. (Frank) Bosman
Religions 2023, 14(4), 438; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040438 - 24 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1763
Abstract
From 1998 to 2005, the once left-wing Protestant Dutch broadcasting company VPRO aired 26 episodes of The White Cowboy, including the episode ‘De Kerkgangers’ (‘The Churchgoers’). In this article, the author argues that this episode is an excellent example of the contemporary [...] Read more.
From 1998 to 2005, the once left-wing Protestant Dutch broadcasting company VPRO aired 26 episodes of The White Cowboy, including the episode ‘De Kerkgangers’ (‘The Churchgoers’). In this article, the author argues that this episode is an excellent example of the contemporary reception of the 16th century Protestant reformation within the Netherlands at the turn of the millennium. Within the secular context of contemporary Dutch society, the stereotypical world-avoidance and lack of any joie de vivre associated with the strict observants of the Dutch reformation are used to mock Protestantism specifically and Christianity (or even religion altogether) in general. Nevertheless, a more positive interpretation also remains possible if one is able to understand secularism itself as a product of the Christian tradition to begin with. Full article
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11 pages, 1655 KiB  
Article
Mater dolorosa—Martin Luther’s Image of Mary of Nazareth: An Example in Lucas Cranach the Elder
by Pablo Blanco-Sarto
Religions 2023, 14(3), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030353 - 7 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2391
Abstract
Protestantism is usually thought of as rejecting the figure of Mary as a collaborator in Christ’s redemption. In Luther’s commentary on the Magnificat (1521), we can see that this doctrine would continue to evolve throughout his life, and would not always be free [...] Read more.
Protestantism is usually thought of as rejecting the figure of Mary as a collaborator in Christ’s redemption. In Luther’s commentary on the Magnificat (1521), we can see that this doctrine would continue to evolve throughout his life, and would not always be free of apparent ambiguities. Luther extolled the figure of Mary, but at the same time he could not avoid reinterpreting her according to the presuppositions of the doctrine of justification and his theology of the Cross, and he understands the figure of Mary as a Mater dolorosa, as one who participates in a special way in the sorrow of her Son. Her union with the Saviour means she shares his pain. In these lines, we intend to look at the main points proposed by the German reformer in his new perspective on Mariology, and the possible influence of this change in spirituality on painting, for example, in The Crucifixion (1532) by Luther’s personal friend Lucas Cranach the Elder, and we propose a comparison with The Lamentation of Christ (1502), painted before the Reformation. Full article
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17 pages, 318 KiB  
Article
From Ahab to “Vilain Herodes”: Biblical Models of Evil Kings in Catholic Anti-Royalist Propaganda during Charles IX (1560–1574) and Henry III (1574–1589)
by Andrei Constantin Sălăvăstru
Religions 2023, 14(3), 344; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030344 - 6 Mar 2023
Viewed by 2160
Abstract
During the French Wars of Religion, both the Huguenot and the radical Catholic factions started by stressing their devotion to the Valois monarchy, for reasons both pragmatic and ideological. Both were hoping for the support of the Crown in achieving their goals—the Huguenots [...] Read more.
During the French Wars of Religion, both the Huguenot and the radical Catholic factions started by stressing their devotion to the Valois monarchy, for reasons both pragmatic and ideological. Both were hoping for the support of the Crown in achieving their goals—the Huguenots to convert France to the Reformation, the radical Catholics to eradicate the Protestantism from the kingdom—and their propaganda made use of numerous Biblical references in order to urge the kings of France to pursue such policy goals. However, Biblical precedents could be a two-edged sword: once hope for royal support was replaced by disappointment and even resentment, the nature of the Biblical models and comparisons changed as well. From appeals to emulate the righteous kings from the Bible, like David, Solomon or Josiah, the propagandists moved to warnings and even threats, by presenting the kings of France with the fate of, this time, wicked rulers like Ahab or Herod, who were grievously punished by God for their transgressions. This paper aims to analyze the recurrences of such examples in the Catholic propaganda during the French Wars of Religion, until the death of Henry III in 1589, and their significance in the political discourse of that age. Full article
13 pages, 273 KiB  
Article
From Heretical Beggars to Protestant Organizers: The Reception of the Reformation by the Waldensians
by Ottavio Palombaro
Religions 2023, 14(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010004 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2262
Abstract
This article takes up the question of how the Poor Waldensians of Lyon, a predecessor of the medieval Franciscan movement, managed to become one of the main Reformed ecclesiastical bodies starting from the sixteenth century. The Italian Waldensians are an interesting ecclesiological case [...] Read more.
This article takes up the question of how the Poor Waldensians of Lyon, a predecessor of the medieval Franciscan movement, managed to become one of the main Reformed ecclesiastical bodies starting from the sixteenth century. The Italian Waldensians are an interesting ecclesiological case since during the time of the Protestant Reformation they underwent a significant transformation, from a nomadic and sectarian heterodox group to an ordered Reformed church body inserted within the broader international network of Reformed churches. This meant their survival through the support of Protestant diplomacy and public opinion, opening a door for Protestantism in the stronghold of Roman Catholicism. Their ideological move was not without changes on many ecclesiological points (Scriptures, sacraments, justification, etc.), in addition to the abandonment of their former pauperistic roots. The study shows how struggling religious minorities can at times undergo essential changes in order to guarantee their survival. Full article
18 pages, 309 KiB  
Article
The Biblical Image of the Providential Ruler in the Protestant Propaganda on the Eve of the French Wars of Religion
by Andrei Constantin Sălăvăstru
Religions 2021, 12(8), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080596 - 2 Aug 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2797
Abstract
French Protestantism has remained famous in the history of political thought mostly for its theories regarding popular sovereignty and the right of the people to resist and replace a tyrannical ruler. However, before the civil wars pushed them on this revolutionary path, French [...] Read more.
French Protestantism has remained famous in the history of political thought mostly for its theories regarding popular sovereignty and the right of the people to resist and replace a tyrannical ruler. However, before the civil wars pushed them on this revolutionary path, French Protestants stressed the duty of obedience even in the face of manifest tyranny. The reasons for this were ideological, due to the significance placed on St. Paul’s assertion that all political power was divinely ordained, but also pragmatic, as Calvin and his followers were acutely aware of the danger of antagonizing the secular authorities. More importantly, they were fervently hoping for the conversion of France to the Reformation and, in their mind, the surest way such a process could take place was through the conversion of the king and the royal family. Therefore, Protestant propaganda of that time constantly urged the most important French royals to convert to the Reformation, and, for this purpose, they deployed a language full of references to the pious Biblical rulers who led their people towards the true faith—whom the addressees of these propaganda texts were advised to emulate, lest they incur God’s wrath. This paper aims to analyze the occurrences and the role of these references in the Protestants’ dialogue with the French monarchy. Full article
14 pages, 290 KiB  
Article
Contradictions, Contextuality, and Conceptuality: Why Is It that Luther Is Not a Feminist?
by Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen
Religions 2020, 11(2), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11020081 - 10 Feb 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4226
Abstract
It is the aim of this article to constructively discuss some of the feminist critique that has been raised against the sixteenth century reformer, Martin Luther, and concomitantly to demonstrate the complexity, and primarily liberal aspects, of his view of women. At its [...] Read more.
It is the aim of this article to constructively discuss some of the feminist critique that has been raised against the sixteenth century reformer, Martin Luther, and concomitantly to demonstrate the complexity, and primarily liberal aspects, of his view of women. At its outset, the article points to the fact that there are many different types of feminism, the biggest difference existing between constructivist and essentialist feminisms. Having placed myself as a constructivist feminist with a prophetic-liberating perspective, I ponder how feminism as an -ism can again earn the respect it seems to have lost in the wider academia. I suggest that feminists nuance their use of strong concepts when assessing historical texts, viewing the assessed texts against the backdrop of their historical context, and that feminists stop romanticizing the Middle Ages as a golden age for women. In this vein, I point to the problem that many feminists make unsubstantiated and counterfactual statements based on co-readings of different strands of Protestantism, and that they often uncritically repeat these statements. I problematize, first, the psycho-historian Lyndal Roper’s claim that Luther should have held some of the most misogynist formulations known, which is absurd against the backdrop of the misogyny found in the centuries before Luther, especially in medieval texts by the Dominicans /the Scholastics. Second, the claims of feminist theologian Rosemary R. Ruether’s that Luther, like Calvin, worsened the status of women, which are counterfactual. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Luther’s theology and Feminism)
9 pages, 172 KiB  
Editorial
Teaching the Reformations—Introduction
by Christopher Metress
Religions 2017, 8(7), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8070120 - 29 Jun 2017
Viewed by 3353
Abstract
This introduction to the Special Issue “Teaching the Reformations” summarizes the volume’s essays and discusses the conference at which they were presented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Teaching the Reformations)
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