Challenges and Opportunities
This section explores the complex dynamics of conflict, persecution, and transformation within Christian history, highlighting both the challenges faced by religious communities and the opportunities for change and negotiation that arose from these struggles.
Clark, Christopher. “The New Catholicism and the European Culture Wars.” In Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth Century Europe, edited by Christopher Clark and Wolfram Kaiser, 11–46. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Clark analyzes the emergence of “New Catholicism” in 19th-century Europe as a reaction to the growing secularization and liberalism of the modern state.
Davie, Grace. “Believing without Belonging: Is this the Future of Religion in Britain?" Social Compass 37, no. 4 (1990): 55–69.
The article is important in the sociology of religion, prompting debates on secularization, privatization of faith, and the transformation of religious identity in modern societies.
Decaluwe, Michiel, Thomas M. Izbicki, and Gerald Christianson, eds. A Companion to the Council of Basel. Brill, 2017.
This comprehensive volume offers a scholarly examination of the Council of Basel (1431–1449), focusing on its theological debates, political dynamics, and efforts at Church reform.
Guibert of Nogent. “Version of Pope Urban II’s Speech at Clermont (1095).” In Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/guibert-cde.asp
This text presents Guibert of Nogent’s written version of Pope Urban II’s sermon at the Council of Clermont in 1095, which called for the First Crusade. Guibert’s account highlights key themes such as the call to liberate Jerusalem, the promise of spiritual rewards, and the appeal to Christian unity against non-Christians. It serves as an important source for understanding how the crusading movement was promoted and interpreted in medieval Europe.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation. Orbis Books, 1973.
In this foundational text of liberation theology, Gutiérrez argues that Christian faith must be lived out through active solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. The book has had a profound influence on global Christian thought, particularly in movements emphasizing social justice, human dignity, and structural change.
Menze, Volker. “‘Blessed be Who Crushes the Children of Persia’: Sacralization of War from the Seventh Through Tenth Centuries.” In Centre and Periphery in the Age of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos: From De cerimoniis to De administrando imperio, edited by N. Gaul, V. Menze, and C. Bálint, 153–167. Harrassowitz, 2018.
This Chapter discusses the sacralization of war within the Byzantine Empire from the seventh to tenth centuries. It highlights how Christian theology and imperial identity were intertwined with military ideology in Byzantine political culture.
Menze, Volker, and Kutlu Akalın. “Kann man Bücher verbrennen? Severus of Antioch’s Letter to Nonnus Scholasticus, a Heretical Codex, and a Late Roman Autodafé.” Oriens Christianus 97 (2013/14): 1–23.
This article investigates whether and how heretical books were destroyed in the late Roman Empire, focusing on a letter by Severus of Antioch, a heretical codex. The study explains early Christian attitudes toward heresy, censorship, and the symbolic power of burning books.
Moore, Robert. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950–1250. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishing, 2009.
Moore traces the emergence of systematic persecution in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages, arguing that the marginalization of groups such as Jews, heretics, lepers, and homosexuals was not incidental but central to the consolidation of centralized authority. The book is foundational for understanding how persecution became a tool of governance and social order in medieval Christian Europe.
Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton University Press, 2015, 1–17.
The introduction sets up his broader methodological aim: to historicize prejudice by tracing both the continuity and contextual specificity of anti-minority violence, while critically re-evaluating the frameworks of center and margin in historical writing.
Tyerman, Christopher. God’s War: A New History of the Crusades. Belknap Press, 2006.
The book presents the Crusades not as a single movement but as a series of evolving phenomena shaped by shifting agendas and contested ideologies across medieval Europe and the Near East.
van Dussen, Michael, and Pavel Soukup. A Companion to the Hussites. Brill, 2020.
This volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the Hussite movement, a major pre-Reformation reform effort rooted in the teachings of Jan Hus in 15th-century Bohemia. It explores the movement’s theological foundations, political impact, and enduring legacy within European Christianity.