ebooks The Secular State Under Siege: Religion and Politics in Europe and America by Christian Joppke in History

Description

The conversion of the lands on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea by Germans; Danes and Swedes in the period from 1150 to 1400 represented the last great struggle between Christianity and paganism on the European continent; but for the indigenous peoples of Finland; Livonia; Prussia; Lithuania and Pomerania; it was also a period of wider cultural conflict and transformation. Along with the Christian faith came a new and foreign culture: the German and Scandinavian languages of the crusaders and the Latin of their priests; new names for places; superior military technology; and churches and fortifications built of stone. For newly baptized populations; the acceptance of Christianity encompassed major changes in the organization and practice of political; religious and social life; entailing the acceptance of government by alien elites; of new cultic practices; and of new obligations such as taxes; tithes and military service in the armies of the Christian rulers. At the same time; as the Western conquerors carried their campaigns beyond pagan territory into the principalities of north-western Russia; the Baltic Crusades also developed into a struggle between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This collection of sixteen essays by both established and younger scholars explores the theme of clash of cultures from a variety of perspectives; discussing the nature and ideology of crusading in the medieval Baltic region; the struggle between Catholicism and Orthodoxy; and the cultural confrontation that accompanied the process of conversion; in subjects as diverse as religious observation; political structures; the practice of warfare; art and music; and perceptions of the landscape.