Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- Introduction: Toward a New Paradigm for Religion in Early Modern Rural Germany -- PART I. THE AGE OF COMMUNAL CHRISTIANITY IN RURAL UPPER HESSE, CA. 1550-1648 -- 1. Communal Christianity: The Aconfessional Livelihood of Religion in Rural Upper Hesse -- 2. Communal Christianity Continues amid a Lutheran Confessionalization, 1576-1604 -- 3. Communal Christianity Thrives amid a Calvinist Confessionalization, 1605-1624 -- 4. Communal Christianity Abides amid a Second Lutheran Confessionalization and the War Years, 1624-1648 -- PART II. COMMUNAL CHRISTIANITY LOST IN THE WAKE OF COMMUNAL CONFESSIONALIZATION, 1648-1730 -- 5. The Origins and Development of a Confessionalized Culture in Rural Upper Hesse, 1648-1677 -- 6. The Spread and Ramifications of Communal Confessionalization, 1677-1730 -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.

David Mayes proposes a new religious paradigm in early modern rural Germany. "Communal Christianity," the religious practice prevalent among peasants in mid-sixteenth-century rural Upper Hesse is juxtaposed with the more formally organized "Confessional" sects (e.g. Lutheran, Calvinist). The author describes Communal Christianity's characteristics and persistence in the face of attempts at confessionalization during the period of 1576-1648 and links its success in part to the decree of the 1555 Religious Peace of Augsburg that only one confessionalized Christian sect be officially recognized in a territory. Confessional sects became marginalized, and more locally well-established peasant communes retained power. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia encouraged reconciliation of confessionalized Christian sects, paradoxically spurring the decline of Communal Christianity in certain locales.

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