98987 - History of Cristianity in the Early Modern World (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, students understand the main theoretical, methodological and technical tools of the historical-religious disciplines of the social sciences that address the study of the history of Christianity in the early modern world. They critically evaluate the socio-cultural matrix of the main religious traditions and history of at least one of the great world religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). They are able to critically examine materials, bibliographic and documentary sources of different types, in order to conduct historical-religious investigations. They focus attention on the socio-political implications of the interaction among groups in complex societies in the modern era. They apply investigative methodologies to address analysis of issues relevant to the discipline. They explain and communicate the contents learned and formulate valid judgments in the historical field and are able to give form to the results of their own research in the field of Early modern Christianity, documenting accurately the information on which they base their conclusions and giving an account of the methodologies of investigation used. They know how to apply the tools of communication and digital data in the editorial and publishing field.

Course contents

he theological, political, and ecclesiastical unity of Western Christianity shattered in the early modern era, marking the beginning of an era of unprecedented and lasting radical transformations. The excitement, trauma, and unrest stirred in Europe by the Protestant movements, religious wars, and the Catholic response had global repercussions, extending far beyond regional boundaries.

This course will enable students to investigate the causes and consequences of this lost unity and to assess the immense significance of the transformation of Christian churches after 1517, as well as to understand the deep connections between those processes initiated in the early modern era and the contemporary world. Special focus will be given to the expansion of Christianity into Africa, Asia, and America; the effects of exposure, interaction, and conflict between Christians and non-Christians; the issue of violence; and the pursuit of solutions to end conflicts.

Instead of following a chronological order, the course will unfold through the study of several crucial topics, for each of which documents and sources will be read in class:

• Shifting Identities: Conversions in the Modern Era from a Global Perspective
• The Concept of Mission: Global Expansion, Violence, and Hybridization
• Tolerance and Intolerance: Christian Europe, Jewish Communities, and Islam
• Saving the Soul through Learning: Christian Humanism
• Truth in Conflict: The Wars of Religion, the Era of Theological Controversies, and Christian Utopia
• Disenchantment and New Enchantments: Christianity and Magic
• Christianity and Imperialism
• Defying the Pope and Remaining Monks: The Cases of Paolo Sarpi and Tommaso Campanella

Readings/Bibliography

Required Reading for Attending Students: Attending students must prepare for the exam using a textbook, a monograph, and two articles from the following list. Non-attending students must add an additional monograph (to be agreed upon with the instructor).

Textbooks: 

• Storia del cristianesimo, vol. 3: L’età moderna (secoli XVI-XVIII), a cura di Vincenzo Lavenia, Roma, Carocci 2015
• Vincenzo Lavenia, Storia della Chiesa, vol. 3, L’età moderna, Bologna, Edb, 2020
• Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia (ed.), Cambridge History of Christianity, volume 6: Reform and Expansion 1600-1660, Cambridge University Press, 2007
• Ulinka Rublack, Reformation Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2005
• D. MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700, London, 2003
• Mark Greengrass, Christendom Destroyed. Europe 1517-1648, London, Penguin, 2014
  

Books: 

• Thomas Kaufmann, I redenti e i dannati. Una storia della Riforma, Torino, Einaudi, 2018
• Guido Dall’Olio, Martin Lutero, Carocci, Roma 2013
• Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, London, 2016
• John Jeffries Martin, A Beautiful Ending: The Apocalyptic Imagination and the Making of the Modern World, Yale University Press, 2022
• Benjamin J. Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, Harvard University Press, 2007
• Ulinka Rublack, The Astronomer and the Witch: Johannes Kepler's Fight for his Mother, Oxford University Press, 2015
• Diarmid MacCulloch, All Things Made New: The Reformation and Its Legacy, Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Adriano Prosperi, Il concilio di Trento: Una introduzione storica, Einaudi, Torino 2001
• Giovanni Pizzorusso, Propaganda fide I. La congregazione pontificia e la giurisdizione sulle missioni, Roma, Storia e Letteratura, 2022
• Cesare Santus, Trasgressioni necessarie. ‘Communicatio in sacris’, coesistenza e conflitti tra le comunità cristiane orientali (Levante e Impero ottomano, XVII-XVIII secolo), École Française de Rome, Rome, 2019
• Daniele Menozzi, La Chiesa cattolica e la secolarizzazione, Einaudi, Torino 1993
• Alister McGrath, Calvino. Il riformatore e la sua influenza sulla cultura occidentale, Claudiana, Torino 2009
• Mario Biagioni, Lucia Felici, La Riforma radicale nell’Europa del Cinquecento, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2012
• Girolamo Imbruglia, The Jesuit Missions of Paraguay and a Cultural History of Utopia (1568–1789), Leiden, Brill, 2021 [L’invenzione del Paraguay Studio sull'idea di comunità tra Seicento e Settecento, Bibliopolis 1987]
• Carlos Eire, They Flew. A History of the Impossible, Yale University Press, 2023
• Lucio Biasiori, Rinascimento sotterraneo. Inquisizione e popolo nella Firenze del Cinquecento, Officina Libraria, 2023
  

Articles and Book Chapters: 

• Natalie Zemon Davis, “The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France.” Past & Present, 59 (1973), pp. 51–91. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/650379
• Denis Crouzet, La nuit de Saint-Barthélemy. Un rêve perdu de la Renaissance (1994)
• Alexandra Walsham, Migration of the Holy. Explaining Religions Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2014)
• Alexandra Walsham, Domesticating the Reformation: Material Culture, Memory and Confessional Identity in Early Modern England, Renaissance Quarterly 69 (2016), pp. 566–616.
• James Simpson, Permanent Revolution: The Reformation and the illiberal Roots of Liberalism, Harvard University Press, 2019
• Nicholas Terpstra, Early Modern Catholicism, in The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History
• Vincenzo Lavenia, Dio in uniforme Cappellani, catechesi cattolica e soldati in età moderna, Il Mulino, 2018
• Anthony Grafton, “Past Belief: The Fall and Rise of Ecclesiastical History in Early Modern Europe,” in Philip Nord, Katja Guenther, and Max Weiss (eds.), Formations of Belief: Historical Approaches to Religion and the Secular, Princeton University Press, 2019, pp. 13-40 (note alle pp. 244-254)
• Ulinka Rublack (ed.), Protestant Empires: Globalizing the Reformations, Cambridge University Press, 2020
• Adriano Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza. Inquisitori, confessori, missionari, Einaudi, 2009
• Ute Lotz Heumann, ‘Confessionalization’, in David M. Whitford (ed.), Reformation and Early Modern Europe: A Guide to Research, 2008
• Lee Palmer Wandel, The Eucharist in the Reformation: Incarnation and Liturgy (2006
• Peter Marshall (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Reformation, Oxford University Press, 2015
  

 

 

Teaching methods

During the lectures, the instructor will use texts and images to train students in interpreting sources and representations in history. All teaching materials (PDFs of articles discussed during classes, images, slides, maps, and podcasts) will be made available in the course's virtual classroom. Depending on the number of participants, the possibility of organizing some brief presentations and/or discussions of specific sources or essays by students will be considered. This aims to practice the skill of preparing texts for public reading and to facilitate maximum class engagement

Assessment methods

The examination consists of an oral interview scheduled at the end of the course. The assessment will take into account the student's ability to master the course content, understand historical concepts, navigate the bibliography, accurately interpret a source, connect acquired information, and present the learned material concisely and with appropriate language. Excellent mastery of these aspects will lead to an excellent grade. A student who merely repeats memorized information without proper understanding and with inadequate language will receive a fair evaluation. A student demonstrating superficial knowledge of the topics, with significant gaps and inappropriate language use, will receive a passing grade. An unprepared student unable to navigate the course will receive a negative evaluation.

As an alternative to studying the texts adopted for the exam, attending students may choose to write a short paper (up to 30,000 characters) on a topic covered in the course. The paper's evaluation will depend on its originality and critical depth.

Teaching tools

Attendance in the course may also include participation in seminars organized by the instructor, as well as visits to archives and libraries to become acquainted with sources on the subject located in and around the city of Bologna. Online databases will be used to access images, texts, and materials relevant to the course.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Petrolini