Religion and Politics. A Source Anthology on Social Conjunctures in the Modern Era

The anthology is aimed at students, researchers and teachers, but also at other historically and thematically interested people. It is primarily designed for teaching in proseminars and exercises, for example in history or also church history. The contributions can be used in a modular fashion, i.e. individually and independently of each other, as a whole or in parts. The anthology as a whole offers the basis for a one-semester course on the topic of the modern relationship between religion and politics in Europe.

The thematic contributions span the period from the 16th to the early 20th century and are geographically devoted to Western Europe, the Holy Roman Empire, East-Central and Southeast Europe, and the Ottoman Empire. In addition to Christian, Jewish and Islamic, secular conceptions of the relationship between religion and politics are also presented. The individual contributions consist of three elements: After an introduction to the respective topic as well as its historical context, selected source pieces are presented. The sources are provided with annotations and comments that enable independent elaboration of their understanding. Thirdly, the contributions are accompanied by an evaluative essay that analyses the topic in detail on the basis of the sources provided and places it in its academic context.

A more methodologically oriented approach to the anthology can be taken via the source genres: In addition to various types of text sources, several visual sources are provided. This brings into view the wide range of communication forms with which the ideas of the social relationship between religion and politics were shaped and disseminated in specific times and contexts. These forms of communication are each associated with specific problems of interpretation, which are pointed out in the explanatory remarks on the source genres.