Belief in History: Innovative Approaches to European and American Religion - Couverture rigide

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0268006873 ISBN 13 : 9780268006877

Editeur : University of Notre Dame Press, 1991

Synopsis

The eight essays in this volume seek to re-establish the importance of belief as both an intellectually and psychologically relevant concept. A common conviction among the contributors is that careful historical work can attune readers to the nature and significance of religious belief and thereby contribute to more balanced and nuanced judgements about religion in both historical and contemporary contexts. The authors also share a concern for redefining the field of religious history, to broaden its domain and extend its contacts with other disciplines. Although the essays in this volume begin with an emphasis on the significance of belief, they move in two directions. One group explores how religious beliefs were a crucial vehicle through which people shaped perceptions of self and society. John Van Engen and Caroline Bynum show how medieval theologians struggled to create coherent visions of a Christian society and an embodied self. Thomas Kselman and Robert Ori illustrate how beliefs about spirits and saints in the modern era reflected and shaped social relationships. A second set of essays explores the dialectical relations between religious and political beliefs. Dale Van Kley and R.Laurence Moore are concerned with the construction of concepts about citizens, states and churches and their appropriate relations. Finally, two essays address the historiography of religion in America and Europe and suggest some ways in which historians of religion might better describe and analyze religious belief and behaviour. John Bossy criticizes the reductionism of recent interpretations of the 16th-century religious wars and argues against what he calls the ""categorical anachronisms"" that have guided the social history of religion. For Jon Butler, Catholicism offers a potentially useful alternative to Puritanism as a model for thinking about American religion, past and present.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date d'édition: 1991
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0268006873
• ISBN 13: 9780268006877
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 352
• Éditeur: USA) Thomas Kselman (Associate Professor Department Of History University Of Notre Dame
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible