Lesson plan
Confessionalization
In Protestant Reformation history, confessionalization is the parallel processes of "confession-building" taking place in Europe between the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). For most of this time, there was a nominal peace in the Holy Roman Empire between the Protestant and Catholic confessions as both competed to establish their faith more firmly with the population of their respective areas. This confession-building occurred through "social-disciplining," as there was a stricter enforcement by the churches of their particular rules for all aspects of life in both Protestant and Catholic areas. This had the consequence of creating distinctive confessional identities that influenced church dogma, faith formation, liturgy, and the development of universities. The German historian Ernst Walter Zeeden first described the phenomenon of 'confession building' (Konfessionsbildung) in the 1950s. In the 1970s, Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling further developed these ideas in parallel, applying their ideas to church-state formation in Roman Catholic and Lutheran contexts in the Holy Roman Empire. Calvin's Geneva is also a model case for the confessional era because of its high degree of social control, unity and homogeneity under one expression of a reformed Christian faith. The Genevan model was informed by an interpretation of Erasmus' humanism.…
Article summary
In Protestant Reformation history, confessionalization is the parallel processes of "confession-building" taking place in Europe between the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). For most of this time, there was a nominal peace in the Holy Roman Empire between the Protestant and Catholic confessions as both competed to establish their faith more firmly with the population of their respective areas. This confession-building occurred through "social-disciplining," as there was a stricter enforcement by the churches of their particular rules for all aspects of life in both Protestant and Catholic areas. This had the consequence of creating distinctive confessional identities that influenced church dogma, faith formation, liturgy, and the development of universities. The German historian Ernst Walter Zeeden first described the phenomenon of 'confession building' (Konfessionsbildung) in the 1950s. In the 1970s, Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling further developed these ideas in parallel, applying their ideas to church-state formation in Roman Catholic and Lutheran contexts in the Holy Roman Empire. Calvin's Geneva is also a model case for the confessional era because of its high degree of social control, unity and homogeneity under one expression of a reformed Christian faith. The Genevan model was informed by an interpretation of Erasmus' humanism.…
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.