Post-Colonial Reformation? Hybridity in 16th-Century Christianity

Abstract

The author considers the utility of post-colonial theory, specifically Homi Bhabha’s notion of hybridity, for its conceptualization of religious diversity and transformation in the German Reformation. She argues that an explicit discourse on the respective ‘‘purity’’ of the confessions should be read in the context of cultural practices that draw not on signs of difference and purity but on cultural commonalities and thus constitute hybridities. This process can be seen in the commemoration of Luther’s death, which relies on traditional Catholic notions of the good Christian death to support its evangelical claims. Using ‘‘hybridity’’ may be a way to circumvent diffculties in the confessionalization paradigm.