Moravian Brethren in a Time of Transition A Socio-Economic Analysis of a Religious Community in Eighteenth-Century Saxony
Product details
Biographical note
Christina Petterson is visiting research fellow at the Australian National University, School of Politics. She has published extensively on Christianity and socio-economics, and most recently co-edited Legacies of David Cranz’ Historie von Grönland (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
Based on hundreds of archival documents, Christina Petterson offers an in-depth analysis of the community building process and individual and collective subjectification practices of the Moravian Brethren in eighteenth-century Herrnhut, Eastern Germany, between 1740 and 1760.
The Moravian Brethren are a Protestant group, but Petterson demonstrates the relevance of their social experiments and practices for early modernity by drawing out the socio-economic layers of the archival material. In doing so, she provides a non-religious reading of categories that became central to liberal ideology, corresponding to the Moravian negotiation of the transition from feudal society to early capitalism.
Through original archival analysis, this book maps the transition to capitalism as it was experienced by an influential religious community.
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introductions
1 To the Marxists
2 To Moravian Scholars and Other Theologians
3 Outline of Chapters
1 Introducing Choir Ideology
1 Introduction
2 From Choir Speech to Choir Ideology
3 What Is the Function of a Choir?
4 Methodology
5 The Choirs as Vanishing Mediators
2 The Choirs – A Genealogy
1 Introduction
2 Overview of the Genealogy
3 Terminology and the Establishment of the Choirs
4 The Day of All Choirs: 25 March
5 Choir Houses
6 Conclusion
3 Blood, Wounds, and Class
1 Introduction
2 Martin Dober’s Account
3 The Purge in Herrnhut
4 Blood, Wounds, and Authority
5 Conclusion
4 The Choir Speeches
1 Introduction
2 The Saviour, Individual and Collective
3 Children’s Choir
4 Boys’ Choir
5 Girls’ Choir
6 Single Brothers’ Choir
7 Single Sisters’ Choir
8 Widowers’ Choir
9 Widows’ Choir
10 Conclusion
5 Marriage and Community
1 Zinzendorf’s Idea of Marriage
2 The Problem
3 After the Synod
4 Conclusion
6 The State and Its Subjects
1 Stand as Manifestation of Cultural Revolution
2 Gender
3 Class Society and the Civic Self
4 Individual and Subject
5 The Question of Religion
6 Conclusion
7 Horizons of History
1 Times of Change
2 Agents of Change or Expressions of Change
3 Dimensions of History
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
References
Index
This book will be of special interest to scholars and students of the history of capitalism, history of religion, German history, and religion and capitalism.
Product details
Biographical note
Christina Petterson is visiting research fellow at the Australian National University, School of Politics. She has published extensively on Christianity and socio-economics, and most recently co-edited Legacies of David Cranz’ Historie von Grönland (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).