Christianity, State, Society in Europe.
XIth through XVIIIth Century, Comparative Perspective.
(2015-2016, Fall term, September-December)
Instructor: prof. M.V. Dmitriev
Title of the course: Christianity, State, Society in Europe. XIth through XVIIIth
Century, Comparative Perspective.
Pre-requisites: acquaintance with medieval and modern history of Europe;
mastering English. The course is neither co-requisite nor pre-requisite of any other
course. It is correlated with other courses on the European and Russian history, which
are taught at in the HSE School for Historical Studies.
Course type: elective
Abstract:
This seminar course (September-December 2015) aims to explore some selected
aspects of the impact exerted by Christian traditions (Catholicism, Orthodoxy,
Protestantism) upon states and societies in Eastern (Russia), Central (Poland) and
Western (France) Europe in the timespan between XIth and XIXth centuries, from a
comparative and multidisciplinary angle.
Our main objective will be to get acquainted with scholarly approaches to some
layers in the double question: - how deethe ply and in what respects did the ByzantineOrthodox confessional traditions impact Russia’s history and Russian culture? - how
deeply and in what respects did Catholic and Protestant confessional traditions impact
history and culture of the West of Europe?
Methodologically this seminar course will be based on Max Weber’s tradition.
Chronologically we will be dealing mostly with Middle Ages and Early Modern
Period, although some perspectives on the XVIIItn-XIXth centuries will be provided too.
Learning objectives:
More specifically, this course aims:
- to analyze comparatively and from the longue durée perspective some crucial
aspects in the interaction of religious traditions with political and social processes in Europe’s
history;
- to explore some new research problems regarding relationship between religious
traditions and social and political evolution of the European countries in Middle Ages and
XVIth - XIXth centuries;
- to familiarize students with the research issues in the given area which remain unclear,
controversial and disputable, and thus most promising in terms of further research.
Learning outcomes of the course:
This course will develop students’ skills to analyze critically and comparatively a
range of problems in religious, political and social history of Europe using appropriate
theoretical and historical perspectives.
Students will acquire a systemic understanding of basic religious factors
influencing social, political and cultural evolution of Europe in Modern time. They will be
able to form an informed, argued judgments in a range of specific questions in history of
Russia, Poland, France and other Europe’s countries Ukraine and Belarus’. They will
1
evaluate critically key concepts and comparative approaches as far as these countries
are concerned.
Students are expected to demonstrate appreciation of diversity and multicultural
contexts in this studies area.
Students who will successfully complete the course will be equipped with an
adequate knowledge and skills to pursue their studies in European and East European
history. By this token, the students who are planning to continue their studies and to
enroll into MA and Ph.D. programs are the most welcome.
Course plan: topics of lectures and seminar discussions (some changes
might occur):
Week 1
(a) Religion, confession, state and society in Europe and beyond: Max
Weber’s legacy.
(b) The “Latin West” and the “Greek” East: what makes a difference on the
normative level? Two patristic legacies.
Week 2:
(a) From patristics to politics? Impact of two Christian normative traditions
upon “political mind” in the West and in the East of Europe.
(b) Religion and politics in the Muscovite tsardom.
Week 3:
(a) Religion and politics in Poland-Lithuania, XVIth – XVIIth centuries.
(b) Religion and politics in France, XVIth – XVIIth centuries.
Week 4:
(a) Counter-Reformation and Catholic Reform in Poland and France.
(b) Religious tolerance in Poland and France, XVIth – XVIth centuries.
Week 5:
(a) From tolerance to exclusion? The Church Union of Brest (1595-1596) and
retreat of tolerance in Poland. Intolerance in France.
(b). Puzzle of religious toleration “à la moscovite”.
Week 6:
(a) Russian Raskol and Old Believers in the XVIIth century: what sort of
“Reformation”?
(b) Religion, tradition, custom in Poland, XVIth – XIXth centuries.
Week 7:
(a) Sub specie mortis: perception of death and its cultural impact in the
“latin” West and in Russia (XIII-XVIIth centuries).
(b) Confessionalization, social discipline, the “well-ordered police state”:
three forces which made the West different?
Week 8:
(a) Missing Reformation, Renaissance, Humanism - a pseudo-problem in
history of the Orthodox cultures of Eastern Europe?
2
(b) Witch hunting in Early Modern Europe: was Russia an exception?
Week 9:
(a) From Catholic Reform to Enlightenment and Revolution in France and
Poland.
(b) How to get modern? Christianity and modernization in France and
Russia, XIXth century.
Week 10:
(a) From medieval nationes to modern nationalism in the West and in the
East of Europe.
(b) Christianity and socialism, Russia and France in the XIXth century.
READING LIST:
Required readings:
Week 1
(a) Religion, confession, state and society in Europe and beyond: Max
Weber’s legacy.
Weber M. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Trans. by T. Parsons.
New York, 1958 (excerpts)
(b) The “Latin West” and the “Greek” East: what makes a difference on the
normative level? Two patristic legacies.
Meyendorff J. Byzantine Theology. Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes. New
York: Fordham University Press, 1974. P. 138-150 (“Man”).
Week 2:
(a)
Fro
m patristics to politics? Impact of two Christian normative traditions upon
“political mind” in the West and in the East of Europe.
Agapetus’ «Exposition of Heads of Advice and Counsel» to emperor Justinian //
Social and Political Thought in Byzantium. From Justinian I to the Last Palaeologus.
Trans. by E. Barker. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1957, p. 55-63
Benz E. The Eastern Orthodox Church: its Thought and Life. New-York, 1963
(The Political Ideas of Orthodoxy; the political ideas of the Augustinian tradition, p. 163174)
(b) Religion and politics in the Muscovite tsardom.
Ivan Peresvetov's recommendations, 1547, in: A Source Book for Russian
History. Vol. 1. Ed. by G. Vernadskii. London, 1972, p.161-164
Joseph of Volokolamsk on obedience to secular rulers; S. von Herberstein on
Muscovy, 1553 // Vernadsky G., Fisher R.T., eds. A source Book for Russian
History from Early Time to 1917. Vol. 1-3. New-Haven, 1972, pp. 155, 156-157.
Andrey Kurbsky’s first epistle to Ivan IV and Ivan’s reply, in: Readings in Russian
Civilization. Vol. 1. Ed. by T. Riha. Chicago, 1964, pp. 92-95
Week 3.
(a) Religion and politics in France, XVIth – XVIIth centuries.
3
Mousnier R. The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy. 1598-1789.
Vol. 2. The Organs of State and Society. Trans. by B. Pearce. Chicago-London: Univ. of
Chicago Press, 1979. Chapter 15. The State. P. 645-677
(b) Religion and politics in Poland-Lithuania and France, XVIth – XVIIth
centuries.
The Henrician Articles (Pacta Conventa), 1574 // Polish Democratic Thought from
the Renaissance to the Great Emigration: Essays and Documents. Columbia University
Press, 1990 (East European Monographs). P. 143-146
Tazbir J. A State Without Stakes, Polish Religious Toleration in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. Warsaw-New York, 1973. P. 9-15 (Introduction), 61-73
(chapter 4, The « Jewel of Religious Freedom »)
Week 4:
(a) Counter-Reformation and Catholic Reform in Poland and France.
Wislicz T. Shepherds of the Catholic Flock: Polish Parochial Clergy, Popular
Religion, and the Reception of the Council of Trent // Gelehrte Geistlichkeit – geistliche
Gelehrte. Beitraege zur Geschichte des Buergertums in der Fruehneuzeit. Ed. by Luise
Schorn-Schuette. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 2012 (Historische Forschungen, 97). P.
25-52
Barnes A. The Social Transformation of the French Parish Clergy, 1500 -1800 //
Culture and Identity in Early Modern Europe (1500 -1800). Essays in Honor of Natalie
Zemon Davis. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1993. P. 139-157
(b) Religious tolerance in Poland and France, XVIth – XVIth centuries.
The General Confederation of Warsaw, 1573; // Polish Democratic Thought from
the Renaissance to the Great Emigration: Essays and Documents. Columbia University
Press, 1990 (East European Monographs). P.
Dunn R.S. The Age of Religious Wars. 1559-1715. New York-London: W.W.
Norton, 1978. P. 31-41
Week 5:
(a) From tolerance to exclusion? The Church Union of Brest (1595-1596) and
retreat of tolerance in Poland. Intolerance in France.
Articles for Which We Need Guarantees… // Gudziak B. A. Crisis and Reform.
The Kyivan Metropolinate, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the
Union of Brest. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998 (Harvard Series on
Ukrainian Studies). Appendix 3. P. 265-272
Davis N.Z. Society and Culture in Early Modern France. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1975 (p. 152 -187, “The Rites of Violence”).
(b). Puzzle of religious toleration “à la moscovite”.
Kappeler, A. Czarist Policy toward the Muslims of the Russian Empire // Muslim
Communities Reemerge: Historical Perspectives on Nationality, Politics, and Opposition
in the Former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Edited by Andreas Kappeler, Gerhard
Simon, Georg Brunner and Edward Allworth. Durham and London: Duke University
Press, 1994. P. 141–156.
4
Week 6:
(a) Russian Raskol and Old Believers in the XVIIth century: what sort of
“Reformation”?
Uspensky B.A. The Schism and Cultural Conflict in the 17th Century // Seeking
God. The Recovery of Religious Identity in Orthodox Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia, Ed.
by S.K. Batalden, DeKalb, 1993, p. 32-52
(b) Religion, tradition, custom in Poland, XVIth – XIXth centuries.
Bogucka M. Martin Gruneweg’s Magic World. Remarks on the Early Modern
Mentality // Acta Poloniae Historica, 86 (2002), p. 47-55
Week 7:
(a) Sub specie mortis: perception of death and its cultural impact in the
“latin” West and in Russia (XIII-XVIIth centuries).
Berezhnaya L. Sin, Fear, and Death in the Catholic and Orthodox Sermons in the
16th – 17th Century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (An Attempt at Comparison) //
Être catholique, être orthodoxe, être protestant. Confessions et identités culturelles en
Europe médiévale et moderne. Études réunies et publiées par Marek Derwich et Mikhaïl
V. Dmitriev. Wroclaw: LARHCOR, 2003. P. 253-284
(b) Confessionalization, social discipline, the “well-ordered police state”:
three forces which made the West different?
Schilling H. Confessionalisation and the Rise of Religious and Cultural Frontiers in
Early Modern Europe // Frontiers of Faith. Religious Exchange and the Constitution of
Religious Identities, 1400-1750. Ed. by E. Andor and I.G. Toth. Budapest: Central
European University, 2001. P.21-36
Po-chia Hsia R. Social discipline // The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.
Vol. 4. P. 70-76
Week 8:
(a) Missing Reformation, Renaissance, Humanism - a pseudo-problem in
history of the Orthodox cultures of Eastern Europe?
Dmitriev M. Humanism and the Traditional Orthodox Culture of Eastern Еurope:
How Compatible were They in the 16th and 17th Centuries? // Orthodox Christianity and
Human Rights. Edited by Alfons Bruening and Evert van der Zweerde. Leuven-ParisWalpole: PEETERS, 2012 (= Eastern Christian Studies, 13). P. 85 – 109
(b) Witch hunting in Early Modern Europe: was Russia an exception?
Ryan, W. F. "The Witchcraft Hysteria in Early Modern Europe: Was Russia an
Exception?" The Slavonic and East European Review 76 (1, 1998): 49-84.
Week 9:
(a) From Catholic Reform to Enlightenment and Revolution in France and
Poland.
Bell D. Culture and Religion //Old Regime France. Ed. by W. Doyle. Oxford
University Press, 2001 (=The Short Oxford History of France). P. 78-104
(b) How to get modern? Christianity and modernization in France and
Russia, XIXth century.
Wallace D.M. Russia on the Eve of War and Revolution. Ed. By C.E. Black. New
York: Vintage Books, 1961 (chapter XIX “The Village Priest’)
Weber E. Peasants into Frenchmen. The Modernization of Rural France, 18701914.Stanford University Press,1976. p. ix- xiii (Introduction); 357-496 (chapter 20. The
Priest and the People).
5
Week 10:
(a) From medieval nationes to modern nationalism in the West and in the
East of Europe.
Reynolds S. Medieval origines gentium and the community of the realm //
Nationalism. Critical Concepts in Political Science. Vol. 2. Ed. by J. Hutchinson and A.D.
Smith. London-New York: Routhledge, 2001.
Raba J. Moscow - the Third Rome or the New Jerusalem? // Jahrbücher für
Geschichte Osteuropas, 50 (1995), p. 297-307.
Knight N. Ethnicity, Nationality and the Masses: ‘Narodnost’ and Modernity in
Imperial Russia // Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices. Edited by
Hoffmann D.L. and Kotsonis Y. Macmillan, 2000. P. 41-67
(b) Christianity and socialism, Russia and France in the XIXth century.
Aleksandr Blok. The People and the Intelligentsia. The Intelligentsia and the
Revolution, in: Russian Intellectual History. An Anthology. Ed. by M. Raeff. New York,
1966. P. 359-371
Manchester L. Holy Fathers, Secular Sons. Clergy, intelligentsia, and the Modern
Self in Revolutionary Russia. DeKalb:North. Ill UP, 2008. P. 3 – 13 (Introduction); 123154 (Martyrdom, Moral Superiority, and a Bursa Education); 211-217 (Conclusion)
Optional readings:
Bauman M., Klauber M.I. Historians of the Christian Tradition. Thought,
Methodology and Influence. Nashville, 1995 (excerpts)
Benz E. The Eastern Orthodox Church: its Thought and Life. New-York, 1963, p.
1-19 (The Orthodox Icon)
Berdyaev N.A. The Origin of Russian Communism. Trans. by R.M. French.
London, 1960. P. 114-157 (chapter 6, Russian Communism and the Revolution).
Bogucka M. The Lost World of the “Sarmatians”. Custom as the Regulator of
Polish Social Life in Early Modern Times. Warszawa, 1996. Chapter 2 (Social
Structures and Custom), chapter 11 (“Sarmatian Eschatology, “Sarmatian” Sensibility).
P. 19-35,181 -199
Brady Th. A. Emergence and Consolidation of Protestantism in the Holy Roman
Empire to 1600 // The Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. VI. Reform and
Expansion, 1500 -1660. Edited by R. Po-Chia Hsia. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
P. 20 – 36, 603-606 (bibliography)
Crummey R. O. Old Belief as Popular Religion: New Approaches // Slavic Review,
52(1993), № 4. P. 700-712
Dixon S. The Modernisation of Russia, 1676 -1825, Cambridge, 1999. P. 1-7
(Modernisation theory and Russian History)
Hastings A. The Construction of Nationhood. Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism.
Cambridge University Press, 1997. P. 167-184, 185-209 (chapters “Ethnicity further
considered”; “Religion further considered”).
Kaiser D.H. Quotidian Orthodoxy. Domestic Life in Early Modern Russia //
Orthodox Russia. Belief and Practice under the Tsars.Ed. by V. A. Kivelson and R. H.
Greene. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003, p.179-192
Khodarkovsky M. The Conversion of Non-Christians in Early Modern Russia // Of
Religion and Empire. Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia. Ed. by R.
P. Geraci and M. Khodarkovsky. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2001. P.
115-144.
Kivelson V. Muscovite “Citizenship”: Rights without Freedom // The Journal of
Modern
History 74 (September 2002), 465-489
6
Kloczowski J. A History of Polish Christianity. Cambridge University Press, 2000,
p.126 - 163 («Post-Tridentine Catholicism and Polish Baroque»)
Mironov B. Peasant popular culture and the origins of Soviet Authoritarianism //
Cultures in F. Lower Class Values, Practices and Resistance in Late Imperial Russia.
Ed. by St. P. Frank and M.D. Steinberg. Princeton Univ. Press, 1994. P. 54-73
Raeff M. The Role of the Well-Ordered Police State in the Development of
Modernity in 17th and 18th-Century Europe: An Attempt at a Comparative approach //
Raeff M. Political Ideas and Institutions in Imperial Russia. West View Press, 1994. P.
309-333
Swann J. The State and Political Culture //Old Regime France. Ed. by W. Doyle.
Oxford University Press, 2001 (=The Short Oxford History of France). P. 139-168
Tazbir J. Culture of the Baroque in Poland // East-Central Europe in Transition.
From the 14th to the 17th century. Ed. by A. Maczak, H. Samsonowicz and P. Burke.
Cambridge-Paris, 1985. P. 167-180
Tazbir J. A State Without Stakes. Polish Religious Toleration in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. Warsaw-New York, 1973. P.182-197 (Chapetr XII. The End of
an Era)
Zguta, R. "Witchcraft Trials in Seventeenth-Century Russia." American Historical
Review 82 (5 1977): 1187-1207.
Grading system:
40% seminar
work:
attendance;
preparedness; participation in
discussions.
30% - term paper: its topic will be chosen by the student in consultation with the
instructor.
30% - final exam (oral discussion on one of topics studied in our course).
Guidelines for Knowledge Assessment:
Grading will be based (1) on the quality of the classroom discussions; (2) on a
paper to be handed in at the end of the course; (3) on final exam mark.
The course puts a major emphasis on discussions in the class. Since the
discussed issues are very diverse, students will many opportunities to show their
abilities.
The students are expected to participate in the course regularly. Every class
missed will be “compensated” by a short written reaction paper (3-4 pages).
Through the essays, presentations, and discussions on the required readings,
students will acquire experience in critiquing professional research articles and will
develop their capacities to identify original contributions to scholarly research.
The class participation will be graded on the basis of the quality of comments
given as well as the precision and depth with which these comments demonstrate an
attentive reading of materials suggested. The class discussions will show how
thoroughly students have mastered the basic information provided in the course as well
as their ability to answer the key questions that this course has been designed to
address.
Methods of Instruction:
The course has a seminar character and focuses not so much on facts as on
interpretations. All issues will be subjected to a comparative analysis. Required
readings make ca. 40-50 pp. per week, composed of fragments of source materials
and chapters (articles) taken from research books. The objective is to get students
7
familiar with some primary sources, and relevant interpretations of issues related to the
course program. The instructor will suggest a list of questions about readings. Students
will be expected to comment on such questions.
Alongside with required readings, students will be expected to refresh their
knowledge of history and culture of Europe on the basis of textbooks and other
reference books.
Through discussions students will gain insight into the analytical historical
questions and methods by which they are researched. Readings are selected to provide
representative case studies for comparative purposes.
Most readings will be distributed as pdf files.
Special Equipment and Software Support.
Computer, projector, screen, access to xeroxing machine
8