Confessionalization

Confessionalization is a recent concept employed by Reformation historians to describe the parallel processes of "confession-building" taking place in Europe between the Peace of Augsburg (1555) and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1649). During this time prior to the Thirty Years' War, there was a nominal peace between the Protestant and Catholic confessions as both competed to establish their faith more firmly with the population of their respective area. This confession-building occurred through "social-disciplining," as there was a stricter enforcement by the churches of their particular rules for all aspects of life in both Protestant and Catholic areas. This had the consequence of creating distinctive confessional identities.

Calvin's Geneva is a model case for the confessional era because of its high degree of social control, unity and homogeneity under one expression of a reformed Christian faith. The Genevan model was informed by an interpretation of Erasmus' humanism. The reformation had shown that it was impossible to make all of Christianity to conform to one faith and thus called an end to the Corpus Christianum. The new motto was to establish the perfect Christian community, in the belief that only one's own theology was the correct one.

Confessionalization was supported by monarchs and rulers in general, because after the Reformation had brought control over their territories' churches into their hands, they could exercise more power over their subjects by enforcing strict religious obedience. The main tool for the enforcement of these rules were "police-regulations". These were behavior-codes for religious, social and economic life to which the common citizen had to oblige under threat of severe punishment.

Increasingly, the secular governments (sometimes in cooperation or conflict with the churches they controlled) provided material relief for the poor and needy, and in return the state demanded obedience and increased taxes from its subjects. Thus confessionalization is often described as a development stage towards the centralised absolutist state of the 18th century and the modern welfare state.

Further reading

• Confessionalization forum (H-German, 2005)
• Lutheran church organization and confessionalization (Britannica Online)
• Confessionalization: Reformation, Religion, Absolutism, and Modernity

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