Religious Transformations in the Early Modern World A Brief History with Documents

The early modern period witnessed sometimes startling, sometimes subtle transformations in the religious and intellectual life of peoples across the globe. For reasons that varied widely, leaders and thinkers from Mexico to the Ottoman Empire and from China to the Indian subcontinent sought to reform existing religions, develop new spiritual practices, promote innovative texts, and, on occasion, even create new religions. Presenting documents from different regions and different religious and philosophical traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Confucianism, this volume allows students to explore and analyze these varied transformations. A general introduction introduces the framework for examining the chapter case studies, while the chapters provide context, a group of primary sources, and a set of questions to consider. Useful pedagogic supports include headnotes to the documents, a chronology, a set of broader questions to consider that help students compare transformations, a selected bibliography, and an index.

Merry Wiesner-Hanks (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the co-editor of the Sixteenth Century Journal and the author or editor of twenty books and many articles that have appeared in English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese. These include Early Modern Europe 1450-1789 (2006); Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (3rd ed. 2008), and Gender in History (2001). Her research has been supported by grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim Foundations, among others. She currently serves as the Chief Reader for Advanced Placement World History, and has also written a number of source books for use in the college classroom, including Discovering the Global Past (3rd ed. 2006), and a book for young adults, An Age of Voyages, 1350-1600 (2005).