Honor your fathers : : catechisms and the emergence of a patriarchal ideology in Germany, 1400-1600 / / by Robert James Bast.

• Superior document: Studies in medieval and Reformation thought ; Volume 63
• VerfasserIn: Bast, Robert J., 1959-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, New York ;, Koln : : Brill,, [1997]; ©1997
• Year of Publication: 1997
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in medieval and Reformation thought ; Volume 63.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; Acknowledgements /; Introduction /; Chapter One The Ten Commandments and Late-Medieval Catechesis /; Chapter Two Fathers of the House /; Chapter Three Fathers of the Church /; Chapter Four Fathers of the Land, I: Late-Medieval Reform and Political Paternalism /; Chapter Five Fathers of the Land, II: The Harvest of Late-Medieval Catechesis in Early Modern Germany /; Conclusion /; Abbreviations /; Bibliography /; Index of Persons and Places /; Index of Subjects /; Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages [245]-258) and indexes.
• ISBN: 9004474994
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Robert James Bast.

This volume offers a fresh perspective on the patriarchal ideology of reform in early modern Germany by revealing its roots in a pan-European catechetical program that had endured a cyclical process of growth and decline since the twelfth century, with each new phase sparked by crises in Church and society. Based on sermons, reform ordinances, devotional treatises and especially catechisms, the book explores the programs developed by reformers and codified in works of religious indoctrination designed to fashion godly fathers (real and metaphorical) in home, church, and body politic. The chief product of this program, argues the author, was an ethos of social discipline that permeated the institutions of each major confession, with government gradually empowered to reach more deeply than ever before into the lives of its subjects.