Reforming Reformation [Hardcover]

The Reformation used to be singular: a unique event that happened within a tidily circumscribed period of time, in a tightly constrained area and largely because of a single individual. Few students of early modern Europe would now accept this view. Offering a broad overview of current scholarly thinking, this collection undertakes a fundamental rethinking of the many and varied meanings of the term concept and label 'reformation', particularly with regard to the Catholic Church. Accepting the idea of the Reformation as a process or set of processes that cropped up just about anywhere Europeans might be found, the volume explores the consequences of this through an interdisciplinary approach, with contributions from literature, art history, theology and history. By examining a single topic from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives, the volume avoids inadvertently reinforcing disciplinary logic, a common result of the way knowledge has been institutionalized and compartmentalized in research universities over the last century. The result of this is a much more nuanced view of Catholic Reformation, and once that extends consideration much further - both chronologically, geographically and politically - than is often accepted. As such the volume will prove essential reading to anyone interested in early modern religious history.Contents: Introduction; Part I Long-Term Perspectives Toward the Present: Reforming the Reformation: Gods truth and the exercise of power, Brad S. Gregory; Confessionalization, confessionalism and confusion in the English Reformation, Peter Marshall; Sacramental realism: relocating the sacred, Ronald F. Thiemann. Part II From the General to the Particular and Back: Local knowledge and Catholic reform in early modern Spain, Lu Ann Homza; First friar, problematic founder: John of the Cross in his earliest biographies, Jodi Bilinkoff; Soul talk and Reformation in England, Anne Overell; Fray Bartolom? Carranzas blueprint for a reformed Catl#L