The Counter–Reformation: The Essential Readings

This book comprises nine key articles on the Counter–Reformation, introduced and contextualized for the student reader. They show that these reforms were more than a mere reaction against the Protestant challenge to Catholic doctrine and institutions, rather, they also constituted an internal renewal that transformed sixteenth– and seventeenth–century Catholic religious life in many complex ways. The collection surveys the conceptual and geographical range of work on the subject since 1945, and includes innovative articles on spirituality, the religious life of ordinary Catholics, the work of missionaries in the New World, and the changing role of women in Catholic culture. The essays are divided into two groups – "Definitions" and "Outcomes" – to illustrate the distinction between reform as a historical idea and as set of processes. The book provides an ideal starting point for an exploration into key topics of debate surrounding this central event of European history.

Acknowledgements. Editor′s Introduction. Part I: Definitions: . 1. Catholic Reformation or Counter–Reformation?: Hubert Judin. 2. Counter–Reformation Spirituality: H. Outram Evennett. 3. Was Ignatius Loyola a Church Reformer? How to Look at Early Modern Catholicism: John W. O′Malley. Part II: Outcomes: . 4. The Counter–Reformation and the People of Catholic Europe: John Bossy. 5. Reformation, Counter–Reformation, and the Early Modern State: A Reassessment: Wolfgang Reinhard. 6. How to Become a Counter–Reformation Saint: Peter Burke. 7. Little Women: Counter–Reformation Misogyny: Alison Weber. 8. The Thirty Years′ War and the Failure of Catholicization: Marc R. Forster. 9. ′The Heart Has Its Reasons′: Predicaments of Missionary Christianity in Early Colonial Peru: Sabine MacCormack. Index.

David Martin Luebke is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Oregon, where he teaches on the history of Germany and early modern Europe. He is author of His Majesty′s Rebels: Communities, Factions, and Rural Revolt in the Black Forest, 1725–1745 (1997) and many articles on popular politics and religion in early modern Germany.