Sacred History

These thirteen incisive essays on varieties and vicissitudes of writing “sacred” or ecclesiastical history in early modern Europe, with an astute introduction by Katherine Van Liere, result from two colloquia sponsored by Calvin College (2008) and University of Notre Dame (2010). Except for Anthony Grafton's magisterial treatment of Eusebius' enduring influence on the new ecclesiastical history and his conspectus of humanist influences on religious historiography across Europe, each essay considers historical writing of a specific region, denomination, or author. The effect of the ensemble, however, is to provide comparative perspectives beyond traditional historiographical categories of nation, confession, and literary genre. Thus, the volume corrects an enduring but false commonplace that considers Renaissance and early modern historical writers to have abandoned or sidelined religious interests as they turned decisively toward a secular view of human affairs that would reach its apogee in the Enlightenment, from Bruni via Machiavelli to Voltaire, as it were. According to that view, even believing Christian historians ceased to embody a Christian worldview as a secular orientation dominated the content and interpretation of historical writing. On that view, “sacred history” of the period 1500–1700 came to be considered by moderns as regressive in comparison with supposedly secular standards.

Ancient history · Art · Art history · Confession (law) · Early Modern Europe · Enlightenment · Historiography · History of religions · Humanism · Interpretation (philosophy) · Literature · The Renaissance · Theology · World history · Classics · Early Modern Women Writers · History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies