The Reformation of Feeling: Shaping the Religious Emotions in Early Modern Germany

by Susan C. Karant-Nunn

Overview

In The Reformation of Feeling, Susan Karant-Nunn looks beyond and beneath the formal doctrinal and moral demands of the Reformation in Germany to examine the emotional tenor of the programs that the emerging creeds—revised Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism/Reformed theology—developed for their members. As revealed by the surviving sermons from this period, preaching clergy of each faith both explicitly and implicitly provided their listeners with distinct models of a mood to be cultivated. To encourage their parishioners to make an emotional investment in their faith, all three groups drew upon rhetorical elements that were already present in late medieval Catholicism and elevated them into confessional touchstones.

This book is exceptional in its presentation of a cultural rather than theological or behavioral study of the broader movement to remake Christianity. As Karant-Nunn conclusively demonstrates, in the eyes of the Reformation's formative personalities strict adherence to doctrine and upright demeanor did not constitute an adequate piety. The truly devout had to engage their hearts in their faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199964017
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/12/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Susan C. Karant-Nunn is Regents' Professor of History and Director of the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies at the University of Arizona.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1. The Emotions in Early-Modern Catholicism
Chapter 2. The Lutheran Churches
Chapter 3. The Reformed Churches
Chapter 4. Condemnation of the Jews
Chapter 5. The Mother Stood at the Foot of the Cross: Mary's Suffering as Incentive to Feel
Chapter 6. Proper Feelings in and around the Death-Bed
Chapter 7. The Formation of Religious Sensibilities: The Reception of Recommendations for Proper Feeling
Chapter 8. The Religious Emotions: Conclusions
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"After having devoured this engrossing and magisterial study, one truly must wonder why Susan Karant-Nunn is the first to take up the topic of the emotional cultures that emerged from the various Reform movements. Meticulously researched and superbly synthesized, The Reformation of Feeling is a landmark study in Reformation Studies—a stepping stone to a cultural history of the Reformation."—Helmut Puff, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan

"A valiant, even daring, expedition into the spiritual world underneath the theological debates, colloquies, political schemes, wars, and treaties that in the past have filled the pages of most histories of the German reformation."—The Catholic Historical Review

"The Reformation of Feeling emphasizes the relative radicalism of the sixteenth-century Reformed Protestant tradition... This valuable book raises questions about which disciplines and types of sources to privilege when trying to write the history of emotions five centuries ago." —The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the Publisher