Religion and Culture in Germany (1400-1800) / / Robert Scribner

• Superior document: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions ; 81
• VerfasserIn: Scribner, Robert
• TeilnehmendeR: Roper, Lyndal,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 2001.
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions ; 81.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

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.

Table of Contents

Places of Original Publication -- Publications of R.W. 'Bob' Scribner -- Acknowledgements -- Bob Scribner: A Personal Reflection, Lyndal Roper -- Robert W. Scribner, A Historian of the German Reformation, Thomas A. Brady, Jr. -- THE POPULAR -- 1. Is a History of Popular Culture Possible? -- 2. Elements of Popular Belief -- WAYS OF SEEING -- 3. Perceptions of the Sacred in Germany at the End of the Middle Ages -- 4. Popular Piety and Modes of Visual Perception in Late-Medieval and Reformation Germany -- 5. From the Sacred Image to the Sensual Gaze: Sense Perceptions and the Visual in the Objectification of the Female Body in Sixteenth-century Germany -- POWER AND COMMUNITY -- 6. Anticlericalism and the Cities -- 7. Pastoral Care and the Reformation in Germany -- 8. Practical Utopia: Pre-Modern Communism and the Reformation -- 9. Heterodoxy, Literacy and Print in the Early German Reformation -- 10. Witchcraft and Judgement in Reformation Germany -- PROTESTANTISM AND MAGIC -- 11. The Impact of the Reformation on Daily Life . -- 12. Symbolising Boundaries: Defining Social Space in the Daily Life of Early Modern Germany -- 13. Magic and the Formation of Protestant Popular Culture in Germany -- 14. The Reformation, Popular Magic, and the 'Disenchantment of the World' -- Indices -- Index of Persons -- Index of Places -- Index of Subjects.