Faith on the Margins: Catholics and Catholicism in the Dutch Golden Age. By Charles H. Parker. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008. xiv + 332 pp. $49.95 cloth.

摘要

FaithontheMargins is a fascinating study of Dutch Catholicism that tracesnthe fate of this confessional community from the late sixteenth century upnthrough the Jansenist schism of 1702. The focus of Parker’s book is the Holland Mission, a cooperative effort between the clergy and the laity tonrestore the fortunes of the Roman Church. His analysis broadens ournunderstanding of religion both in Netherlands and more generally acrossnearly modern Europe in two significant ways. First, his examination ofnDutch Catholicism is an important case study of how a minority faith wasnable to survive and even grow on society’s margins in a repressivenenvironment. Parker effectively critiques a simplistic but celebrated view ofnan open and tolerant Dutch society that has frequently informed ournunderstanding of this region in the seventeenth century. He argues thatnreligious coexistence in the United Provinces developed in a context ofnboth conflict and concord. Second, Parker illustrates how Catholic reformnin Netherlands occurred without the support of either the state or annofficially recognized church. Instead, it was the product of a unique formnof collaboration between an active clergy and a committed laity. Parkerndescribes how elite families helped create a new infrastructure to supportnthe clergy and care for the poor after the secularization of church property.nWomen, in particular, played an especially critical role as the CatholicnChurch worked to reestablish itself in Dutch culture.