Early Modern Religious Communities in East-central Europe ─ Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania 1526-1691

Transylvania has been home to cultural diversity for many centuries and down to the present, says Keul (religious studies, Norwegian U. of Science and Technology, Trondheim), but one of the most attractive and rewarding period to investigate it is just after the Reformation. He surveys the emergence of religious communities within a clearly delineated geographical, political, and cultural space during a specific historical period that begins with the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, which ended the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, and ends with the Hermannstadt Declaration in 1688 and the Leopoldine Diploma in 1691, which together marked the loss of the Principality's autonomy. His topics include the region and its inhabitants, stages and processes of the Reformation, under Catholic princes, the rule of Gabor Bethlen, the Principality's golden age and decline, and denominational toleration and confessionalization. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Istvan Keul, Ph.D. (2000) in Religious Studies, Tubingen University, was Privatdozent at Berlin Freie Universitat. From August 2009 he is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at NTNU Trondheim. He has published on the religious history of East-Central Europe including Religion, Ethnie, Nation und die Aushandlung von Identitat(en) (Berlin, 2005).