Religious Transformations in the Early Modern World A Brief History with Documents

by Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E.

• ISBN13: 9780312458867
• ISBN10: 031245886X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-09
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

The early modern period witnessed sometimes startling, sometimes subtle transformations in the religious and intellectual life of peoples across the globe. For reasons that varied widely, leaders and thinkers from Mexico to the Ottoman Empire and from China to the Indian subcontinent sought to reform existing religions, develop new spiritual practices, promote innovative texts, and, on occasion, even create new religions. Presenting documents from different regions and different religious and philosophical traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Confucianism, this volume allows students to explore and analyze these varied transformations. A general introduction introduces the framework for examining the chapter case studies, while the chapters provide context, a group of primary sources, and a set of questions to consider. Useful pedagogic supports include headnotes to the documents, a chronology, a set of broader questions to consider that help students compare transformations, a selected bibliography, and an index.

Author Biography

Merry Wiesner-Hanks (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the co-editor of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the author or editor of twenty books and many articles that have appeared in English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese. These include Early Modern Europe 1450-1789 (2006); Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (3rd ed. 2008), and Gender in History (2001). Her research has been supported by grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim Foundations, among others. She currently serves as the Chief Reader for Advanced Placement World History, and has also written a number of source books for use in the college classroom, including Discovering the Global Past (3rd ed. 2006), and a book for young adults, An Age of Voyages, 1350-1600 (2005).

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

A Note about the Texts

Introduction

Religious Innovations and Reforms

Interwoven Transformations

Primary Themes

The Documents Mesoamerica: Mexica Innovations and Mexican Catholicism

Gods of Life and Death from theCodex Borgia,c. 1500

Hymn to Huitzilopochtli from the Codices Matritenses, c. 1550

Mexica War Songs, 1560s

Diego Durá

The History of the Indies of New Spain, c. 1580

Annals,1613

Sermons, 1540

Christian Psalmody,1583

Final Judgment,1530s

Annals,1613 Europe: Reforms and Reformations in Christianity

Desiderius Erasmus,The Praise of Folly,1511

The Freedom of a Christian, 1520

A sermon on marriage, 1525

Protestant woodcut,1546

Spiritual Exercises,1520s

The Way of Perfection,1565

Injunctum nobis, 1564

Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1536

Ordinances for the Regulation of Churches, 1547

Africa and Southwest Asia: Politics and Mysticism in Islam and Judaism

The Replies of Muhammad Al-Maghili to the Questions of Askia al-Hajj Muhammad, 1498

Letters Between Sultan Selim I and Shah Isma’il, 1514

Mystical dance of a Sufi brotherhood, sixteenth century

Qualities of a Sufi saint, c. 1560

The Balance of Truth,1656

The Palmtree of Deborah, 1560s

Bringing Forth Sparks,1570

The Pious Customs of Abraham Galante, 1580s

South Asia: Syncretism and Sikhism in the Mughal Empire

Abu’l Fazl, Akbarnama, c. 1590

‘Abd ul-Qadir Bada’uni,Selected Histories,c. 1590

Scholars Gather at Akbar’s Court, 1605

School of Religion,c. 1650

The Japji Sahib from the Guru Granth

Hymns of Guru Amar Das, 1560s

Sikh texts for a wedding, 1560s

East Asia: Combining and Competing Traditions in China and Japan

Questions on theGreat Learning,1527

The Community Compact for Southern Ganzhou, 1520s

A Book to Burn (Fenshu),1590

Two Letters, 1590s

A Man in a House Beneath a Cliff,17th century

Ruling and Living in Conformity with the Order of Heaven andEarth

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