The Semantics of Religious Borders in Early Modern Confessions

Abstract

ABSTRACT In order to provide a nuanced understanding of early modern religious history, the metaphors of ‘border’ and ‘layer’ have proved particularly useful. This article proposes utilizing Nicolai Hartmann's ontology and Helmuth Plessner's anthropology to deepen our comprehension of these metaphors. It also highlights the existence of competing metaphors, such as ‘confessional osmosis,’ which can mislead or downplay personal agency. To test the efficacy of stratigraphic metaphors, two case studies are presented: the multi-confessional city and multiple conversions. These case studies demonstrate how stratigraphic metaphors can capture the simultaneity of the simultaneous, commonalities and differences within the lives of historical agents. The conversions of the nun Martha Zitter provide a particularly insightful illustration for the use of such metaphors.