Christianity did not reach the modern age by straight paths, but by crooked ones: For two centuries after the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants fought over the truth of their religion. They waged merciless wars and concluded fragile peace treaties. They invested in education and culture. They professionalized clerics and civil servants and tried harder than ever to shape the everyday lives of ordinary people in the villages and towns. They persecuted witches and learned to control the fear of magic. The Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars created completely new conditions for making Christianity plausible for the modern era. The book describes the enormous efforts under which Catholic and Protestant men and women faced the upheavals between the Reformation and the Revolution. Many of these efforts were similar. But their respective 'religious knowledge' developed significantly different.

The way in which the world's religions are intertwined in the dynamics of global development has become obvious in the twenty-first century. This also applies to Christianity. In view of the fact that its historiography is still predominantly regional or national, however, little is known about Christianity's historical process of development to become a religion that is globally active and plurally differentiated. The first volume takes up this challenge by presenting a comprehensive, interdenominational and interdisciplinary history of global Christianity from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, for the first time in German-speaking countries. Renowned theologians and (church) historians clarify the turning-points in the Early Modern period that set the course for the global spread and fascinating plurality of modern Christianity.

The way in which the world's religions are intertwined in the dynamics of global development has become obvious in the twenty-first century. This also applies to Christianity. In view of the fact that its historiography is still predominantly regional or national, however, little is known about Christianity's historical process of development to become a religion that is globally active and plurally differentiated. The second volume presents a comprehensive, interdenominational and interdisciplinary history of global Christianity in the nineteenth century, for the first time in the German-speaking countries. Renowned theologians, (church) historians and historians trace the numerous upheavals associated with the "long nineteenth century" that brought Christianity into the modern age.

Schon die 1970 - 1974 erschienene erste Ausgabe der ukumenischen Kirchengeschichte galt allgemein als Standardwerk. Das Grundkonzept wurde fr diese vAllig neu bearbeitete und aktualisierte Neuauflage beibehalten: Jede kirchengeschichtliche Epoche wird von einem katholischen und einem protestantischen Kirchenhistoriker beschrieben. So spiegelt dieses bersichtswerk die ganze Breite der Kirchengeschichte wider. Durch die enge Zusammenarbeit von Vertretern beider Konfessionen kAnnen alle Phasen der Kirchengeschichte umfassend ausgeleuchtet werden.aBiographische InformationenThomas Kaufmann, geboren 1962, Professor fr Kirchengeschichte an der Universitnt GAttingen. Forschungsschwerpunkte: Religion, Kultur, Gesellschaft und Politik im 15. bis 17. Jahrhundert. 1998 wurde Kaufmann mit dem Akademiepreis der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ausgezeichnet. Er gehArt der GAttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften als ord. Mitglied an und leitet deren Kommission fr die Erforschung der Kultur des spnten Mittelalters. Er ist stellvertretender Vorsitzender des Vereins fr Reformationsgeschichte.Hubert Wolf, geb. 1959, ist Professor fr Kirchengeschichte an der Universitnt Mnster. Er wurde u.a. mit dem Leibnizpreis der DFG, dem Communicator-Preis und dem Gutenberg-Preis ausgezeichnet und war Fellow am Historischen Kolleg in Mnchen."