The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648. By Bridget Heal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xvi+338. Cloth $99.00. ISBN 978-0-521-87103-7

摘要

In The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany, Bridget Heal examines the diversity of Marian devotion in Germany during the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, as a means of capturing religious experience during the early modern period. An outgrowth of her dissertation research at the University of London, carried out under the tutelage of Bob Scribner and Lyndal Roper, the work examines how the vibrant expression of the cult of the Virgin that typified late medieval Christian religiosity changed in the wake of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, influenced not only by theological considerations, but also by local political and social conditions. Through detailed examination of theological writings, household inventories, and visual depictions of the Virgin, limned and carved, Heal offers a fascinating comparative analysis of the role of Marian piety in Protestant and Catholic areas, proving that it diverged dramatically across the confessional divide and within the competing confessions