Witchcraft, Madness, Society, and Religion in Early Modern Germany

Witchcraft, Madness, Society, and Religion in Early Modern Germany PDF Author: H. C. Erik Midelfort
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781409457336
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
H. C. Erik Midelfort has carved out a reputation for innovative work on early modern German history, with a particular focus on the social history of ideas and religion. This collection pulls together some of his best work on the related subjects of witchcraft, the history of madness and psychology, demonology, exorcism, and the social history of religious change in early modern Europe. Several of the pieces reprinted here constitute reviews of recent scholarly literature on their topics, while others offer sharp departures from conventional wisdom. A critique of Michel Foucault's view of the history of madness proved both stimulating but irritating to Foucault's most faithful readers, so it is reprinted here along with a short retrospective comment by the author. Another focus of this collection is the social history of the Holy Roman Empire, where towns, peasants, and noble families developed different perceptions of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and of the options the religious revolutions of the sixteenth century offered. Finally, this collection also brings together articles which show how Freudian psychoanalysis and academic sociology have filtered and interpreted the history of early modern Germany.

Witchcraft, Madness, Society, and Religion in Early Modern Germany

Witchcraft, Madness, Society, and Religion in Early Modern Germany PDF Author: H. C. Erik Midelfort
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781409457336
Category : Germany
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
H. C. Erik Midelfort has carved out a reputation for innovative work on early modern German history, with a particular focus on the social history of ideas and religion. This collection pulls together some of his best work on the related subjects of witchcraft, the history of madness and psychology, demonology, exorcism, and the social history of religious change in early modern Europe. Several of the pieces reprinted here constitute reviews of recent scholarly literature on their topics, while others offer sharp departures from conventional wisdom. A critique of Michel Foucault's view of the history of madness proved both stimulating but irritating to Foucault's most faithful readers, so it is reprinted here along with a short retrospective comment by the author. Another focus of this collection is the social history of the Holy Roman Empire, where towns, peasants, and noble families developed different perceptions of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and of the options the religious revolutions of the sixteenth century offered. Finally, this collection also brings together articles which show how Freudian psychoanalysis and academic sociology have filtered and interpreted the history of early modern Germany.

Witchcraft, Madness, Society, and Religion in Early Modern Germany

Witchcraft, Madness, Society, and Religion in Early Modern Germany PDF Author: H.C. Erik Midelfort
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040234054
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
H.C. Erik Midelfort has carved out a reputation for innovative work on early modern German history, with a particular focus on the social history of ideas and religion. This collection pulls together some of his best work on the related subjects of witchcraft, the history of madness and psychology, demonology, exorcism, and the social history of religious change in early modern Europe. Several of the pieces reprinted here constitute reviews of recent scholarly literature on their topics, while others offer sharp departures from conventional wisdom. A critique of Michel Foucault’s view of the history of madness proved both stimulating but irritating to Foucault’s most faithful readers, so it is reprinted here along with a short retrospective comment by the author. Another focus of this collection is the social history of the Holy Roman Empire, where towns, peasants, and noble families developed different perceptions of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and of the options the religious revolutions of the sixteenth century offered. Finally, this collection also brings together articles which show how Freudian psychoanalysis and academic sociology have filtered and interpreted the history of early modern Germany.

Spiritualia and Pastoralia

Spiritualia and Pastoralia PDF Author: Frederick J. McGinness
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 0802099483
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1197

Get Book Here

Book Description


Madness, Religion and the State in Early Modern Europe

Madness, Religion and the State in Early Modern Europe PDF Author: David Lederer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521853478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the ideological crucible of the Reformation emerged an embittered contest for the human soul. In the care of souls, the clergy zealously dispensed spiritual physic; for countless early modern Europeans, the first echelon of mental health care. During its heyday, spiritual physic touched the lives of thousands, from penitents and pilgrims to demoniacs and mad people. Ironically, the phenomenon remains largely unexplored. Why? Through case histories from among the records of over 1,000 troubled and desperate individuals, this regional study of Bavaria investigates spiritual physic as a popular ritual practice during a tumultuous era of religious strife, material crises, moral repression and witch hunting. By the mid-seventeenth century, secular forces ushered in a psychological revolution across Europe. However, spiritual physic ensconced itself by proxy upon emergent bourgeois psychiatry. Today, its remnants raise haunting questions about science and the pursuit of objective knowledge in the ephemeral realm of human consciousness.

The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe

The Realities of Witchcraft and Popular Magic in Early Modern Europe PDF Author: E. Bever
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230582117
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 643

Get Book Here

Book Description
Exploring the elements of reality in early modern witchcraft and popular magic, through a combination of detailed archival research and broad-ranging interdisciplinary analyses, this book complements and challenges existing scholarship, and offers unique insights into this murky aspect of early modern history.

The Long European Reformation

The Long European Reformation PDF Author: Peter G. Wallace
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1352006146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this established textbook, Wallace provides a succinct overview of the European Reformation, interweaving the influential events of the religious reformation with the transformations of political institutions, socio-economic structures, gender relations and cultural values throughout Europe. Examining the European Reformation as a long-term process, he reconnects the classic 16th century religious struggles with the political and religious pressures confronting late medieval Christianity, and argues that the resolutions proposed by reformers such as Luther were not fully realised for most Christians until the early 18th century. This new edition features a brand new chapter on the Reformation from a global perspective, updated historiography, a new chronology, and updated material throughout, including on the interrelationship between religion and politics after 1648.The Long European Reformation provides an even-handed and detailed account of this complex topic, providing a clear overview that is perfect for undergraduate and postgraduate students of history and religious studies. New to this Edition: - New chapter on the Reformation in global perspective - Incorporates new perspectives and current debates on Luther and the place of the Reformation within Western history, including consideration of how people lived with their religious differences - Expanded conclusion with references to the 500th anniversary and religious continuities

Everyday Renaissances

Everyday Renaissances PDF Author: Sarah Gwyneth Ross
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674969979
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
The world of wealth and patronage that we associate with sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Italy can make the Renaissance seem the exclusive domain of artists and aristocrats. Revealing a Renaissance beyond Michelangelo and the Medici, Sarah Gwyneth Ross recovers the experiences of everyday men and women who were inspired to pursue literature and learning. Ross draws on a trove of original unpublished sources—wills, diaries, household inventories, account books, and other miscellany—to reconstruct the lives of over one hundred artisans, merchants, and others on the middle rung of Venetian society who embraced the ennobling virtues of a humanistic education. These men and women sought out the latest knowledge, amassed personal libraries, and passed both their books and their hard-earned wisdom on to their families and heirs. Physicians were often the most avid—and the most anxious—of professionals seeking cultural legitimacy. Ross examines the lives of three doctors: Nicolò Massa (1485–1569), Francesco Longo (1506–1576), and Alberto Rini (d. 1599). Though they had received university training, these self-made men of letters were not patricians but members of a social group that still yearned for credibility. Unlike priests or lawyers, physicians had not yet rid themselves of the taint of artisanal labor, and they were thus indicative of a middle class that sought to earn the respect of their peers and betters, protect and advance their families, and secure honorable remembrance after death.

Witchcraft, the Devil, and Emotions in Early Modern England

Witchcraft, the Devil, and Emotions in Early Modern England PDF Author: Charlotte-Rose Millar
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1134769814
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book represents the first systematic study of the role of the Devil in English witchcraft pamphlets for the entire period of state-sanctioned witchcraft prosecutions (1563-1735). It provides a rereading of English witchcraft, one which moves away from an older historiography which underplays the role of the Devil in English witchcraft and instead highlights the crucial role that the Devil, often in the form of a familiar spirit, took in English witchcraft belief. One of the key ways in which this book explores the role of the Devil is through emotions. Stories of witches were made up of a complex web of emotionally implicated accusers, victims, witnesses, and supposed perpetrators. They reveal a range of emotional experiences that do not just stem from malefic witchcraft but also, and primarily, from a witch’s links with the Devil. This book, then, has two main objectives. First, to suggest that English witchcraft pamphlets challenge our understanding of English witchcraft as a predominantly non-diabolical crime, and second, to highlight how witchcraft narratives emphasized emotions as the primary motivation for witchcraft acts and accusations.

Witch Craze

Witch Craze PDF Author: Lyndal Roper
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300119831
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
A powerful account of witches, crones, and the societies that make them From the gruesome ogress in Hansel and Gretel to the hags at the sabbath in Faust, the witch has been a powerful figure of the Western imagination. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries thousands of women confessed to being witches--of making pacts with the Devil, causing babies to sicken, and killing animals and crops--and were put to death. This book is a gripping account of the pursuit, interrogation, torture, and burning of witches during this period and beyond. Drawing on hundreds of original trial transcripts and other rare sources in four areas of Southern Germany, where most of the witches were executed, Lyndal Roper paints a vivid picture of their lives, families, and tribulations. She also explores the psychology of witch-hunting, explaining why it was mostly older women that were the victims of witch crazes, why they confessed to crimes, and how the depiction of witches in art and literature has influenced the characterization of elderly women in our own culture.

Ideas and Cultural Margins in Early Modern Germany

Ideas and Cultural Margins in Early Modern Germany PDF Author: Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351929143
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

Get Book Here

Book Description
While the assumption of a sharp distinction between learned culture and lay society has been broadly challenged over the past three decades, the question of how ideas moved and were received and transformed by diverse individuals and groups stands as a continuing challenge to social and intellectual historians, especially with the emergence and integration of the methodologies of cultural history. This collection of essays, influenced by the scholarship of H.C. Erik Midelfort, explores the new methodologies of cultural transmission in the context of early modern Germany. Bringing together articles by European and North American scholars: this volume presents studies ranging from analyses of individual worldviews and actions, influenced by classical and contemporary intellectual history, to examinations of how ideas of the Reformation and Scientific Revolution found their way into the everyday lives of Germans of all classes. Other essays examine the ways in which individual thinkers appropriated classical, medieval, and contemporary ideas of service in new contexts, discuss the means by which groups delineated social, intellectual, and religious boundaries, explore efforts to control the circulation of information, and investigate the ways in which shifting or conflicting ideas and perceptions were played out in the daily lives of persons, families, and communities. By examining the ways in which people expected ideas to influence others and the unexpected ways the ideas really spread, the volume as a whole adds significant features to our conceptual map of life in early modern Europe.