Protestant Empires: Globalizing the Reformations

Protestantism during the early modern period is still predominantly presented as a European story. Advancing a novel framework to understand the nature and impact of the Protestant Reformations, this volume brings together leading scholars to substantially integrate global Protestant experiences into accounts of the early modern world created by the Reformations, to compare Protestant ideas and practices with other world religions, to chart colonial politics and experiences, and to ask how resulting ideas and identities were negotiated by Europeans at the time. Through its wide geographical and chronological scope, Protestant Empires advances a new approach to understanding the Protestant Reformations. Showcasing selective model approaches on how to think anew, and pointing the way towards a multi-national and connected account of the Protestant Reformations, this volume demonstrates how global interactions and their effect on Europe have played a crucial role in the history of the 'long Reformation' in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Ulinka Rublack; 1. Re-working Reformation in the early English Atlantic Carla Gardina Pestana; 2. Puritanism in a local context: ministry, people, and church in 1630s Massachusetts David D. Hall; 3. Learned reading in the Atlantic colonies: how humanist practices crossed the Atlantic Anthony Grafton; 4. Portable lives: reformed artisans and refined materials in the refugee Atlantic Neil Kamil; 5. Idolatry, markets, and confession: the global project of the de Bry family Suzanna Burghartz; 6. 'Better the Turk than the Pope': Calvinist engagement with Islam in Southeast Asia Charles H. Parker; 7. Inventing a Lutheran ritual: baptisms of Muslims and Africans in early modern Germany Renate Dürr; 8. Conversion and its discontents on the southern colonial frontier: the Pietist encounter with non-Christians in colonial Georgia James Van Horn Melton; 9. Globalizing the Protestant Reformation through millenarian practices Ulrike Gleixner; 10. Global Protestant missions and the role of emotions Jacqueline Van Gent; 11. The sacred world of Mary Prince Jon Sensbach; 12. New perspectives on gender and sexuality in global Protestantism, 1500–1800 Merry Wiesner-Hanks.

About the Author :
Ulinka Rublack is Professor of European History at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Reformation Europe, 2nd edition (2017), and editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations (2016) and The Concise Companion to History (2011).

Review :
'Protestant Empires cross-fertilizes two of the most productive trends in early modern historiography: the globalization of history, and the pluralization of the Reformation. In its richly researched chapters, an all-star cast of scholars kaleidoscopically portrays how Protestantism spread 'to the ends of the earth' with transformative effects from the Americas to Asia.' David Armitage, Harvard University, Massachusetts 'A fascinating project which illuminates areas of early modern religious history which are too often marginalized. Presenting the fruits of years of substantive research, Protestant Empires will be a helpful addition to our thinking about the broader spread of the Protestant cultural world.' Euan Cameron, Columbia University, New York 'Protestant Empires offers a variety of fascinating approaches to the task of writing a global history of the Reformation. Through case-studies of connection and comparison, its contributors integrate Protestant experiences in Europe and abroad. The book will provide an important stimulus for researching and teaching the Reformation within the frameworks of world history.' Bridget Heal, University of St Andrews '… there was more to the story of Protestantism's spread beyond Europe than just the English colonies in North America. Put together enough pieces, and a mosaic starts to appear. In this book, Ulinka Rublack, a Reformation historian at Cambridge who has a refreshing readiness to ask big questions, is helping to launch that mosaic-making process. Most of the 12 scholarly essays that she has assembled for this collection are precise case studies, glimpses of a highly varied and fragmented process.' Alec Ryrie, Church Times 'This volume, like its cover, is a splendid one.' Michael I. Bochenski, Anabaptism Today 'Through a set of meticulously researched, well-crafted and thematically coherent essays such as these, Protestant Empires succeeds in deepening our understanding of the global entanglements of early modern Germany and the Protestant Reformations … the volume will undoubtedly become essential reading for anyone interested in early modern Europe and the global history of Christianity … an incredibly rewarding and important read.' Richard Calis, German History '… a brilliant attempt to approach a global history of early modern Protestantism as inclusively and pluralistically as possible, which will certainly become the starting point for further research. [translated from German]' Mattias Pohlig, Historischen Zeitschrift