Protestant-Catholic Conflict from the Reformation to the 21st Century: The Dynamics of Religious Difference [Paperback]

Taking a fresh look at the roots and implications of the enduring major historic fissure in Western Christianity, this book presents new insights into the historical dynamics of Protestant-Catholic conflict while illuminating present-day contexts and suggesting comparisons for approaching other entrenched conflicts in which religion is implicated.Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors 1. Exploring the History of Protestant-Catholic Conflict; John Wolffe 2. Europe's 'Wars of Religion' and their Legacies; Mark Greengrass 3. Eighteenth-Century English Anti-Catholicism: Contexts, Continuity and Diminution; Colin Haydon 4. The Longue Dur?e of German Religious Conflict?; Helmut Walser Smith 5. Religious Conflict in Ulster c. 1780-1886; Andrew Holmes 6. Sectarianism and Evangelicalism in Birmingham and Liverpool, 1850-2010; Philomena Sutherland 7. 'The Catholic danger': Liberal theology and Anti-Catholicism in Sweden; Yvonne-Maria Werner 8. Protestant-Catholic Conflict in the United States: The Cases of John F. Kennedy and Ronald W. Reagan; Thomas J. Carty 9. The Dynamics of Religious Difference in Contemporary Northern Ireland; John Bell 10. Beyond Protestant-Catholic Conflict?; John Wolffe Index

This collection of essays provides a sophisticated and admirably balanced comparative analysis, equally historical and social scientific, of contentious issues constantly subject to polemical and inflammatory readings. It looks equally at times and places where conflict did occur and where it did not, it examines key events and episodes that build up mythic representations, especially the so-called 'wars of religion', it draws attention to the complex mix of factors, in particular the role of state power, it points up the role played by insecurity, and it destabilises the sweeping categories and topoi that bedevil discussion. It provides a major contribution to an issue too often subject to circular arguments and definitions. - David Martin, London School of Economics, lÃ4