Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Gijsbert van den Brink and Harro M. Höpfl -- Calvin, the Reformed Tradition and Modern Culture / Gijsbert van den Brink and Harro Höpfl -- The Inner Dynamics of Calvinism: Why Calvin’s Theology Fostered a Spirituality of Participation Over Imitation / Julie Canlis -- Dynamics of Dutch Calvinism: Early Modern Programs for Further Reformation / Fred van Lieburg -- The Dynamics of the Reformed Reformation: German Reformed Church Orders in the 16th Century / Georg Plasger -- Calvinists vs. Libertines: A New Look at Religious Exile and the Origins of ‘Dutch’ Tolerance / Mirjam G.K. van Veen and Jesse Spohnholz -- European Calvinists and the Study of Nature: Some Historical Patterns and Problems / Jitse M. van der Meer -- Hot Protestants: Predestination, the Freedom of the Will and the Making of the Modern European Mind / Martin van Gelderen -- Predestination and Political Liberty / Harro M. Höpfl -- Weber Revisited: Critical Perspectives from Calvinism on Capitalism in Economic Crisis / Johan J. Graafland -- Calvinism and the Making of the Modern European Economic Mind: A Comment and Call for More Research / Philip Benedict -- Calvinism and the European Mind: Pitfalls and Prospects in Contemporary Research / Gijsbert van den Brink -- / Gijsbert van den Brink and Harro M. Höpfl -- / Gijsbert van den Brink and Harro M. Höpfl -- / Gijsbert van den Brink and Harro M. Höpfl.

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Calvinism must be assigned a significant place among the forces that have shaped modern European culture. Even now, despite its history of religious fragmentation and secularization, Europe continues to bear the marks of a pervasive Calvinist ethos. The character of that ethos is, however, difficult to pin down. In this volume, many of the traditional scholarly conundrums about the relationship between Calvinism and the cultural history of Europe are revisited and re-investigated, to see what new light can be shed on them. For example, how has the ethos of Calvinism, or more broadly the Reformed tradition, affected economic thinking and practice, the development of the sciences, views on religious toleration, or the constitution of European polities? In general, what kind of transformations did Calvinism’s distinct spirituality bring about? Such questions demand painstaking and detailed scholarly work, a fine sample of which is published in this volume.