Literature and Religion in the German-Speaking World
From 1200 to the Present Day

The relationship between literature and religion in German is unique in the European tradition. It is essential to the definition of German, Austrian and Swiss cultural identity in both the Protestant and Catholic traditions, and is crucial to our understanding of what has been called the 'special path' of German intellectual life. Offering in-depth essays by leading scholars, Literature and Religion in the German-Speaking World analyses this relationship from the beginnings of vernacular literature in German, via the Reformation, early-modern and Enlightenment periods, to the present day. It shows how such fundamental concepts as 'subjectivity', 'identity' and 'modernity' itself arise from the interrelation between religious and secular modes of understanding, and how this interrelation is inseparable from its expression in literature.

Introduction: literature and religion in the German-speaking world, 1200 to the present Ian Cooper and John Walker; 1. Pagan, Christian, secular: German writing until 1450 Almut Suerbaum; 2. Literature and religion in the Holy Roman Empire, 1450–1700 Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly; 3. German literature and religion, 1700–1770: the shock and normalization of the infinite John H. Smith; 4. Literature and religion in Germany, 1770–1830 Ian Cooper; 5. Culture, society and secularization: literature and religion in the German-speaking world, 1830–1900 John Walker; 6. Religion in German modernism, 1900–1945 Carolin Duttlinger; 7. German literature and religion, 1945 to the present day Daniel Weidner; Index.

Ian Cooper is Lecturer in German at the University of Kent, Canterbury.
John Walker is Reader in German Intellectual History at Birkbeck College, University of London.