Essays on the Social and Cultural History of the Reformation
This volume collects significant essays by Susan C. Karant-Nunn, exploring the social and cultural changes initiated by the Reformation. It examines its impact on gender relations, rituals, and emotions, analyzing the practical implementation of religious change and the resulting transformations in early modern life.
An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany
In The Reformation of Ritual Susan Karant-Nunn explores the function of ritual in early modern German society, and the extent to which it was modified by the Reformation.Employing anthropological insights, and drawing on extensive archival research, Susan Karant-Nunn outlines the significance of the ceremonial changes. This comprehensive study includes an examination of all major rites of passage: birth, baptism, confirmation, engagement, marriage, the churching of women after childbirth, penance, the Eucharist, and dying. The author argues that the changes in ritual made over the course of the century reflect more than theological shifts; ritual was a means of imposing discipline and of making the divine more or less accessible. Church and state cooperated in using ritual as one means of gaining control of the populace.