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In The Reformation of Ritual Susan Karant-Nunn explores the function of ritual in early modern German society, and the extent to which it was modified by the Reformation. Employing anthropological insights, and drawing on extensive archival research, Susan Karant-Nunn outlines the significance of the ceremonial changes. This comprehensive study includes an examination of all major rites of passage: birth, baptism, confirmation, engagement, marriage, the churching of women after childbirth, penance, the Eucharist, and dying. The author argues that the changes in ritual made over the course of the century reflect more than theological shifts; ritual was a means of imposing discipline and of making the divine more or less accessible. Church and state cooperated in using ritual as one means of gaining control of the populace.
An overview of Susan Karant-Nunn’s impact on the social and cultural history of the Reformation in central Europe.
Susan Karant-Nunn argues that the 16th-century Reformation movement sought not only to modify people's doctrinal convictions and their behavior but to root these changes in altered sentiment.
Overwhelmingly, Martin Luther has been treated as the generator of ideas concerning the relationship between God and humankind. The Personal Luther deliberately departs from that church-historiographic tradition. Luther was a voluble and irrepressible divine. Even though he had multiple ancillary interests, such as singing, playing the lute, appreciating the complexities of nature, and observing his children, his preoccupation was, as he quickly saw it, bringing the Word of God to the people. This book is not about Luther’s theology except insofar as any ideational construct is itself an expression of the thinker who frames it. Luther frequently couched his affective utterances within a th...
Martin Luther contributed extensively to the sixteenth century debate about women with his writings on women and related subjects such as marriage, the family and sexuality. In this volume, Merry Wiesner-Hanks and Susan Karant-Nunn bring together a vast selection of these works, translating many into English for the first time. They include sermons, lectures, pamphlets, polemic writings, letters and some informal table talk recorded by his followers. The book is arranged into chapters on Biblical women, marriage, sexuality, childbirth and witchcraft, as well as on Luther s relations with his wife and other contemporary women. The editors, both internationally-known scholars on Reformation and women, provide a general introduction to each chapter, and Luther s own colourful words fuel both sides of the debate about whether the Protestant Reformation was beneficial or detrimental to women. This collection will make a wide range of Luther s works accessible to English-speaking scholars, students and general readers.
Ten essays on aspects of Martin Luther's private life, including, among others, sexuality, marriage, parenthood, religious emotions, and dying.
These essays add a unique perspective to studies that reconstruct the identity of manhood in early modern Europe, including France, Switzerland, Spain, and Germany. The authors examine the ways in which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century authorities, both secular and religious, labored to turn boys and men into the Christian males they desired. Topics include disparities among gender paradigms that early modern models prescribed and the tension between the patriarchal model and the civic duties that men were expected to fulfill. Essays about Martin Luther, a prolific self-witness, look into the marriage relationship with its expected and actual gender roles. Contributors to this volume are Scott H. Hendrix, Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Raymond A. Mentzer, Allyson M. Poska, Helmut Puff, Karen E. Spierling, Ulrike Strasser, B. Ann Tlusty, and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks.
Despite the decisive turn toward cultural history in the last generation, scholars working on the Reformation have only gradually perceived the riches that are available if they place sixteenth-century Reformers and their theological innovations within a broader context of established beliefs and practices. Inspired by such pioneers as Natalie Zemon Davis and Robert W. Scribner, this aggregation of leading historians demonstrates that cultural approaches to the past may suggest whole new opportunities for research: Time (Helmut Puff), shared spaces (David Luebke), the senses (Philip Hahn), religious singing (Francisca Loetz), the use of images (Bridget Heal), healing and material culture (Ut...