Preliminary Material / David Mayes -- Copyright Page / David Mayes -- Dedication / David Mayes -- Acknowledgements / David Mayes -- Note on the Translation / David Mayes -- Figures and Maps / David Mayes -- Introduction / David Mayes -- Introduction to Part 1 / David Mayes -- Chapter 1 The Animating Forces of Christian History in Rural Germany, to 1648 / David Mayes -- Chapter 2 Rural Gemeinden in an Age of Pluralization, 1517–1648 / David Mayes -- Chapter 3 Mounting Another Surge, 1648–1800s / David Mayes -- Chapter 4 Characteristics of Rural Christian Culture, 1648–1900s / David Mayes -- Chapter 5 Surging toward Crescendo, 1648–1900s / David Mayes -- Conclusion to Part 1 / David Mayes -- Introduction to Part 2 / David Mayes -- Chapter 6 The Division of Local Sacred Communities, 1648–1817 / David Mayes -- Chapter 7 Ministerial Conflict, 1648–1817 / David Mayes -- Chapter 8 Toleration Transformed, 1648–1817 / David Mayes -- Chapter 9 Rural Fulda amid the Evangelical Union, 1817–1850s / David Mayes -- Chapter 10 Rural Hanau amid the Evangelical Union, 1817–1860s / David Mayes -- Chapter 11 Rural Upper Hesse amid the Evangelical Union, 1817–1900s / David Mayes -- Conclusion to Part 2 / David Mayes -- Epilogue / David Mayes -- Bibliography / David Mayes -- Index of Place Names / David Mayes -- Index of Subjects / David Mayes.

Surely, Christian history in Germany principally followed the outlines of a Catholic and Protestant narrative, right? On the contrary, for Hesse, Hanau, and Fulda this dominant framework largely obscures the historical experience of most Christians, specifically rural Christians. The rural Christian narrative, animated for more than a millennium by agricultural and communal forces, principally followed an indigenous path characterized by long-term surges and setbacks. This path eventually bifurcated not in the 1517-1648 period but rather in the wake of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, and it did so not into Catholic and Protestant storylines but rather into those Christian corpora ( Gemeinden ) which maintained their local civil-sacred unity into the twentieth century and those which lost that unity after succumbing to Westphalia's divisive effects.

English

Description based on print version record.