The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648. By Bridget Heal. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xvi + 344 pp. $99.00 cloth.

摘要

In this erudite and nuanced book, Bridget Heal explains the diversity of piousnattitudes and practices associated with the Virgin Mary in Germany during the sixteenth-century Reformation. She accomplishes two significant tasks especiallynwell: first, she marshals an impressive range of sources—literary, liturgical, legal,nand above all artistic (the book is marvelously illustrated with 64 images)—tonmake her points. Second, she coherently analyzes her subject both across andnwithin the confessions that shaped religious culture in this period. She not onlyncompares Marian piety in Catholic, Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Calvinist worldsnbut also considers its diversity within each of these Christian communities.