Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe

Conceived as another chapter in the European history of religions (Europäische Religionsgeschichte), this book deals with the intense dynamics of the overlapping political, ethnic, and denominational constellations in Reformation and post-Reformation Transylvania. Navigating along multiple narrative tracks, and attempting to treat the religious history of an entire region – over a limited time period – in a differentiated, polyfocal way, the book represents a departure from the master narratives of any singularly oriented religious history. At the same time, the present work seeks to contribute to laying the groundwork at the micro- and meso-contextual level of East-Central European confessionalization processes, and to developing interpretive models for these processes in the region.

István Keul, Ph.D. (2000) in Religious Studies, Tübingen University, was Privatdozent at Berlin Freie Universität. From August 2009 he is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at NTNU Trondheim. He has published on the religious history of East-Central Europe including Religion, Ethnie, Nation und die Aushandlung von Identität(en) (Berlin, 2005).

"István Keul has provided a helpful survey of religion and politics in Transylvania during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This book is informed by a thorough engagement with existing studies about Transylvania’s religious history in a range of languages as well as by analysis of some printed sources." – Graeme Murdock, Trinity College Dublin, in: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 62 (July 2011), pp. 614-615
"István Keul has produced a solid publication that may become part of the standard literature itself." – Nicolai Staab, University of Erfurt, Germany, in: Religion 41/2 (2011), pp. 303-306
"A valuable contribution to the English-language literature on this topic [...] a useful starting point for a student or for a scholar of some other corner of early-modern history who wants to begin exploring east-central Europe [...] lavishly illustrated." – Paul Shore, Brandon University, Canada, in: The Catholic Historical Review 96/4 (October 2010)
"Die Monographie von István Keul erschließt die frühe Epoche in vertiefter Weise und erlaubt somit einen umfassenden und chronologisch aufgebauten Überblick über die Geschehnisse und Entwicklungen." – Astrid von Schlachta, Universität Innsbruck, in: Sehepunkte 10/10 (2010) (15.10.2010)
"István Keul hat ein sehr nützliches Handbuch für alle, die sich für die Religionsgeschichte Ostmitteleuropas interessieren, geschrieben." – Gábor Kármán, Universität Leipzig, in: Südost-Forschungen 69/70 (2010/2011), pp. 537-540