Books by Sita Steckel
Über Religion entscheiden/Choosing my Religion: Religiöse Optionen und Alternativen im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Christentum/Religious Options and Alternatives in Medieval and Early Modern Christianity, 2021
(German abstract below)
In medieval and early modern Christianity, religion was often located be... more (German abstract below)
In medieval and early modern Christianity, religion was often located beyond the realm of personal choice, but it was nevertheless frequently the object of individual and collective decision-making. The contributions in this volume explore forms of decision-making about religion during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Engaging in questions of change and innovation in this time of transformation, the authors also contribute to our knowledge of religious individualization and pluralization.
Contributors: Kai Bremer, Wolfram Drews, Nikolas Jaspert, Imke Just, Volker Leppin, David M. Luebke, Christina Lutter, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, Matthias Pohlig, Alexander Schunka, Gerd Schwerhoff, Sita Steckel, John Van Engen
Kann man über Religion entscheiden? Obwohl Religion in der Vormoderne häufig jenseits des Bereichs menschlicher Wahlentscheidungen verortet wurde, war sie in verschiedenen historischen Konstellationen immer wieder Gegenstand individueller sowie kollektiver Entscheidungen. Doch welche Formen des Entscheidens über religiöse Fragen gab es überhaupt? Wie veränderten sie sich zwischen Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit? Die Beiträge dieses Bandes bündeln historische Befunde zur allmählichen Ausgestaltung von Konzepten und Praxen des individuellen religiösen Entscheidens im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit.
Mit Beiträgen von: Kai Bremer, Wolfram Drews, Nikolas Jaspert, Imke Just, Volker Leppin, David M. Luebke, Christina Lutter, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, Matthias Pohlig, Alexander Schunka, Gerd Schwerhoff, Sita Steckel, John Van Engen
Die Beiträge des Bandes gehen der Frage nach, wie spätmittelalterliche Gemeinschaften Entscheidun... more Die Beiträge des Bandes gehen der Frage nach, wie spätmittelalterliche Gemeinschaften Entscheidungen im Kontext ihrer gesellschaftlichen Ordnungsstrukturen, sozialen Herrschaftskonstellationen und kulturellen Deutungsmuster vorbereitet, getroffen und vermittelt haben. Untersucht werden städtische Ratskollegien, Zünfte, die Hanse, Domkapitel und monastische Konvente, Gelehrtengruppen und Universitäten sowie Inquisition und Konzilien. Durch seine Konzentration auf die soziale, kommunikative Praxis des Entscheidens verdeut licht der Band, dass kollektives Entscheiden mehr ist als die Summe individueller Entscheidungen.
This volume contains a new edition, German and English translations and five studies contextualiz... more This volume contains a new edition, German and English translations and five studies contextualizing the mortuary roll of Bruno the Carthusian († 1101). It's number 16 in the series 'Europa Sacra' with Brepols, to appear in June 2014 .
Bénédicte Sère, 2019
Dans la lancée de la décennie en cours consacrée aux travaux sur l’espace public au Moyen Âge et ... more Dans la lancée de la décennie en cours consacrée aux travaux sur l’espace public au Moyen Âge et les polémiques et controverses de l’époque moderne et contemporaine, le présent volume se propose de dresser un état de l’art de la question à la période médiévale concernant la production scientifique récente.
Des iie et iiie siècles jusqu’au cœur du xve siècle, avec des incursions dans l’époque moderne, le traitement de la question se distingue par la volonté d’examiner la dimension ecclésiale du problème, restée peu défrichée jusqu’à présent et propose, ce faisant, une autre lecture du dialogue possible entre histoire et sciences sociales.
Edited journal issues by Sita Steckel
Church History and Religious Culture, 2019
This thematic section offers some of the theoretical considerations resulting from COST Action IS... more This thematic section offers some of the theoretical considerations resulting from COST Action IS1301 "New communities of interpretation: Contexts, Strategies and Processes of Religious Transformation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe", an international research network devoted to the study of lay religious culture during the long fifteenth century. A particular aim of this network was to discuss new European narratives framing the important transformations of lay religious culture during the period c. 1350–1550—a complex historical process that is still often obscured by the competing older narratives of Reformation, humanism, and Renaissance which shape the historiographical heritage. The introductory article problematizes this and suggests viewing the transformation of lay religious culture as a long-term process of cultural evolution instead. It offers an overview of the most important aspects of this evolutionary process during the long fifteenth century. The following articles discuss sociological theories of the religious field as a possible framework for new European narratives of religious transformation.
Medieval Worlds, 2018
This special issue presents studies on medieval religious polemic and its embedding into various ... more This special issue presents studies on medieval religious polemic and its embedding into various textual genres and communicative situations, prefaced by an introduction which engages with the many recent attempts to define 'polemic' in an interdisciplinary and global setting. It gathers contributions from eight international researchers focusing on Christian polemics against Jews, heretics, Franciscan friars, or Christian dissident texts. Several contributions also deals with the communicative regimes shaping medieval religious polemic.
Short Essays by Sita Steckel
Political Theology Network, 2023
Some narratives about secularization and modernization processes which include pre-modern history... more Some narratives about secularization and modernization processes which include pre-modern history still tend to postulate a trajectory of an early emergence of secularity in Europe, particularly in the form of a separation of church and state beginning during the European Middle Ages. But more recent findings suggest that medieval Christian Europe remained quite comparable to other cultural constellations: Rather than a secular sphere, political dynamics produced demands for the de-politicization of religion, or at most, situations and social spaces of ‘neutrality.’ Online at https://politicaltheology.com/did-medieval-christian-europe-really-produce-early-forms-of-secularity/
Papers by Sita Steckel
Church History and Religious Culture
Introducing a thematic section, this article presents an overview and some of the theoretical con... more Introducing a thematic section, this article presents an overview and some of the theoretical considerations resulting from COST Action IS1301, an international research network devoted to the study of lay religious culture during the long fifteenth century. A particular aim of this network was to discuss new European narratives framing the important transformations of lay religious culture during the period c. 1350–1550—a complex historical process that is still often obscured by the competing older narratives of Reformation, humanism, and Renaissance which shape the historiographical heritage. To get beyond the “methodological nationalism” and “methodological modernism” inherent in older paradigms, the article suggests viewing the transformation of lay religious culture as a long-term process of cultural evolution. It closes with an overview of the most important aspects of this evolutionary process during the long fifteenth century.
Karolingische Klöster, Jan 29, 2015
Knowledge and Culture under Threat: Europe around 900, 2020
This chapter concludes the volume 'knowledge and culture around 900', which revisits the issue of... more This chapter concludes the volume 'knowledge and culture around 900', which revisits the issue of 'crisis' around 900. The chapter argues that the volume tackles this issue at a moment when new frameworks for the description of historical transformations have been discussed in many sub-fields of history. Besides giving an overview of the new ways of writing the history of the decades around 900 assembled in the volume, it also contributes to the discussion about emerging new ways of writing history more generally.
Church History and Religious Culture 99.3-4, 2019
As historians of religion are currently diagnosing a need to find new shared frameworks and new n... more As historians of religion are currently diagnosing a need to find new shared frameworks and new narratives enabling interdisciplinary and trans-epochal exchange, the article suggests a closer historical engagement with theories of the “religious field”, originally formulated by Pierre Bourdieu on the basis of Max Weber’s work, as this theory has the potential to serve as a meta-language for interdisciplinary communication. The article sets out the most important elements of the theory of the religious field, and evaluates them critically by way of a historicization of important concepts, drawing on recent discussions in sociology and Religious Studies. After discussing the concept of the religious field itself, the article discusses several internal dynamics of the field (as suggested by Bourdieu and by more recent research) as well as several typical dynam- ics between fields. It concludes with suggestions for historical adaptations, including an updated approach to religious plurality and to the different types of religious actors envisaged by Weber and Bourdieu.
Church History and Religious Culture, 99.3-4, 2019
Introducing a thematic section, this article presents an overview and some of the the- oretical c... more Introducing a thematic section, this article presents an overview and some of the the- oretical considerations resulting from COST Action IS1301, an international research network devoted to the study of lay religious culture during the long fifteenth century. A particular aim of this network was to discuss new European narratives framing the important transformations of lay religious culture during the period c. 1350–1550—a complex historical process that is still often obscured by the competing older narra- tives of Reformation, humanism, and Renaissance which shape the historiographical heritage. To get beyond the “methodological nationalism” and “methodological mod- ernism” inherent in older paradigms, the article suggests viewing the transformation of lay religious culture as a long-term process of cultural evolution. It closes with an overview of the most important aspects of this evolutionary process during the long fifteenth century.
in: Matthias Pohlig (Hrsg.), Christen, Juden und Muslime im Zeitalter der Reformation, Gütersloh ... more in: Matthias Pohlig (Hrsg.), Christen, Juden und Muslime im Zeitalter der Reformation, Gütersloh 2020, S. 41-91.
Horizontal Learning in the High Middle Ages. Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Transfer in Religious Communities, edited by Micol Long, Tjamke Snijders and Steven Vanderputten Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvnb7nbt, 2019
This is the concluding commentary to the conference volume entitled "Horizonal learning in High M... more This is the concluding commentary to the conference volume entitled "Horizonal learning in High Medieval Religious Communities", edited by Micol Long, Tjamke Snijders and Steven Vanderputten. The paper begins with a brief summary of the contributions and then attempts to further differentiate what types of 'horizonal' learning they describe. It then situates practices of non-institutionalized, non-hierarchical learning such as (1.) learning among peers, (2.) learning in non-institutionalized settings and (3.) group- or community-oriented learning in the wider historiography of learning, which has long cultivated approaches to 'communities of learning', but still suffers from an unfortunate division of research into 'monastic' and 'scholastic' traditions. The paper suggests that community- and group-oriented forms of religious learning may actually merit being understood as important spaces for the formation of lay religious knowledge, and thus constitute an important laboratory for historical dynamics leading towards early modern patterns, instead of being merely 'monastic' traditions forming a 'dead end' in a history oriented towards secularity. The paper concludes with several suggestions (drawing on the contributions in the volume) why the high middle ages specifically may have witnessed an increasing emphasis on non-hierarchical, non-institutionalized learning.
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Books by Sita Steckel
In medieval and early modern Christianity, religion was often located beyond the realm of personal choice, but it was nevertheless frequently the object of individual and collective decision-making. The contributions in this volume explore forms of decision-making about religion during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Engaging in questions of change and innovation in this time of transformation, the authors also contribute to our knowledge of religious individualization and pluralization.
Contributors: Kai Bremer, Wolfram Drews, Nikolas Jaspert, Imke Just, Volker Leppin, David M. Luebke, Christina Lutter, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, Matthias Pohlig, Alexander Schunka, Gerd Schwerhoff, Sita Steckel, John Van Engen
Kann man über Religion entscheiden? Obwohl Religion in der Vormoderne häufig jenseits des Bereichs menschlicher Wahlentscheidungen verortet wurde, war sie in verschiedenen historischen Konstellationen immer wieder Gegenstand individueller sowie kollektiver Entscheidungen. Doch welche Formen des Entscheidens über religiöse Fragen gab es überhaupt? Wie veränderten sie sich zwischen Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit? Die Beiträge dieses Bandes bündeln historische Befunde zur allmählichen Ausgestaltung von Konzepten und Praxen des individuellen religiösen Entscheidens im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit.
Mit Beiträgen von: Kai Bremer, Wolfram Drews, Nikolas Jaspert, Imke Just, Volker Leppin, David M. Luebke, Christina Lutter, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, Matthias Pohlig, Alexander Schunka, Gerd Schwerhoff, Sita Steckel, John Van Engen
Des iie et iiie siècles jusqu’au cœur du xve siècle, avec des incursions dans l’époque moderne, le traitement de la question se distingue par la volonté d’examiner la dimension ecclésiale du problème, restée peu défrichée jusqu’à présent et propose, ce faisant, une autre lecture du dialogue possible entre histoire et sciences sociales.
Edited journal issues by Sita Steckel
Short Essays by Sita Steckel
Papers by Sita Steckel
In medieval and early modern Christianity, religion was often located beyond the realm of personal choice, but it was nevertheless frequently the object of individual and collective decision-making. The contributions in this volume explore forms of decision-making about religion during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Engaging in questions of change and innovation in this time of transformation, the authors also contribute to our knowledge of religious individualization and pluralization.
Contributors: Kai Bremer, Wolfram Drews, Nikolas Jaspert, Imke Just, Volker Leppin, David M. Luebke, Christina Lutter, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, Matthias Pohlig, Alexander Schunka, Gerd Schwerhoff, Sita Steckel, John Van Engen
Kann man über Religion entscheiden? Obwohl Religion in der Vormoderne häufig jenseits des Bereichs menschlicher Wahlentscheidungen verortet wurde, war sie in verschiedenen historischen Konstellationen immer wieder Gegenstand individueller sowie kollektiver Entscheidungen. Doch welche Formen des Entscheidens über religiöse Fragen gab es überhaupt? Wie veränderten sie sich zwischen Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit? Die Beiträge dieses Bandes bündeln historische Befunde zur allmählichen Ausgestaltung von Konzepten und Praxen des individuellen religiösen Entscheidens im Mittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit.
Mit Beiträgen von: Kai Bremer, Wolfram Drews, Nikolas Jaspert, Imke Just, Volker Leppin, David M. Luebke, Christina Lutter, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, Matthias Pohlig, Alexander Schunka, Gerd Schwerhoff, Sita Steckel, John Van Engen
Des iie et iiie siècles jusqu’au cœur du xve siècle, avec des incursions dans l’époque moderne, le traitement de la question se distingue par la volonté d’examiner la dimension ecclésiale du problème, restée peu défrichée jusqu’à présent et propose, ce faisant, une autre lecture du dialogue possible entre histoire et sciences sociales.
Within the history of religion, the phenomenon is similarly familiar: Bad Christians were accused of being like – or worse than – Turks or Jews, Jews were admonished not to fall so low as to behave like Christians and so on.
Studying such comparisons, we set out to explore the relationship between polemics, orders of knowledge, and concepts of religion.
Bringing together scholars of different religious traditions and periods, the conference proposes to take a interdisciplinary and systematic view on religious diversity and polemical comparison. The papers trace polemical comparisons from Late Antiquity to modern times, in Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist discourses.
Through paired interventions, the speakers will question the formation and consolidation of traditional narratives concerning the Church in order to shift the focus away from classic “religious history” and confront the historical approach with the methodologies and concepts developed by social sciences. Deconstructing these grand narratives will highlight the ideological presuppositions of conventional normative accounts, insuring a critical historicization of classical conceptions about the Church and Churches from an anthropological and social-historical perspective.