Defining Distinctions

Religious Boundaries and Religious Conflicts in Early Modern Europe

Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schlögl, Prof. Dr. Marcus Sandl, Jan Behnstedt, Sandro Liniger, Eva Brugger

Teilprojekte

Ereignisse religiöser Gewalt im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Die Bündner Wirren (1600-1640). Abstract
Sandro Liniger

Körper unter Beobachtung. Eine Medien- und Wissensgeschichte der Wallfahrt im 18. Jahrhundert. Abstract
Eva Brugger

Ehemaliges Teilprojekt

Heilsökonomie und Geldwirtschaft im nachtridentinischen Katholizismus
Jan Behnstedt

Abstract

The goal of the project is to obtain new perspectives on the religious history of early modernity using communication and distinction theory. In contrast to existing approaches, we will not observe religion in isolation, as a partial domain of early modern history. Instead, we will view it as a central factor in the formation of social structures and as a catalyst for diachronic processes of transformation and differentiation. Our interest is centered on the distinctions that are produced, observed and processed in the medium of early modern religion. The fields to be examined are: 1) boundary distinctions and interferences between religion and economics; and 2) the nexus of religion, violence and conflict in early modern European history. Inasmuch as the religious is determined by its own boundaries as well as the emergence of contemporary boundary distinctions, we will also be contributing to the understanding of how modern processes of integration emerge and develop, thus going beyond a history of religion in the narrow, conventional sense.