‘Confessionalisation’ —a useful theoretical concept for the study of religion, politics, and society in early modern East‐Central Europe?1

Abstract

The confessionalisation paradigm, introduced by two German historians in the early 1980s, initiated a fundamental change of perspective in the scholarship of early modern Germany. Taking into account long‐term developments and directing attention to the relatively neglected period between the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the concept paved the way for historical writing that considers ‘religion’ and ‘church’ as an integral part of societal history (Gesellschaftsgeschichte). This essay discusses the background of the confessionalisation model in German historiography as well as its essential features. Second it offers an overview of the critique and recommendations towards a refinement of the confessionalisation thesis. What follows is a presentation of several ongoing case studies of scholars affiliated with the Humanities Center for the Study of East Central European History and Culture in Leipzig, Germany (Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas or ‘GWZO’). The relevance of the concept of confessionalisation for these research projects will be explored here, focusing on the Crown Lands of Bohemia, as well as, Poland and Hungary in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.