Confessional Identity in East-Central Europe (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780754603207)

This book considers the emergence of a remarkable diversity of churches in east-central Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries, which included Catholic, Orthodox, Hussite, Lutheran, Bohemian Brethren, Calvinist, anti-Trinitarian and Greek Catholic communities. Contributors assess the extraordinary multiplicity of confessions in the Transylvanian principality, as well as the range of churches in Poland, Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary. Essays focus on how each church sought to establish its own identity in a crowded market-place of religious ideas, and on the extent to which printed literature brokered the popular reception of religious doctrine. The volume addresses how ideas about religion spread within the largely illiterate societies of east-central Europe, especially through catechisms, and how printed literature was used to instruct congregations about doctrinal truth, to encourage the faithful to pious devotions, and to shape the religious life and identity of local communities.

Author: Maria Craciun,Ovidiu Ghitta
ISBN-10: 0754603202
ISBN-13: 9780754603207
Publisher: Routledge
Language: English
Published: 06/18/2002
Pages: 226
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.56d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2003 pg. 997