Voices of Conscience analyzes how the link between politics and conscience was articulated and shaped throughout the seventeenth century by confessors who acted as counsellors to monarchs. Against the backdrop of the momentous intellectual, theological, and political shifts that marked this period, the study examines comparatively how the ethical challenges of political action were confronted in Spain and France and how questions of conscience became a major argument in the hegemonic struggle between the two competing Catholic powers. As Nicole Reinhardt demonstrates, 'counsel of conscience' was t a peripheral feature of early-modern political culture, but fundamental for the definition of politics and conscience. Tracing the rise and fall of confessors as counsellors reveals the parallel transformation of both, approaching a historical understanding of the modernisation of politics with the idea of an 'individual conscience' at its heart. Placed at the junction of rms and practices, royal confessors, directly or in oblique reflection, shaped the ways in which the royal conscience was identified and scrutinized. By the same token, the royal confessors' expertise and activities remained a source of anxiety and conflict that triggered wide debate on the relationship between State and Church, religion and politics. The tion of 'counsel of conscience', of which this book provides the first in-depth analysis, allows the reader to re-examine and challenge fundamental historical paradigms such as the emergence of 'absolutism', individualisation, and the division of public and private. Putting theological concepts and religious dimensions back into political theory and practice sheds new light, t only on the importance of counselling for early modern statecraft, but also on the reconfiguration of the rmative frameworks underlying it.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10
0198703686
ISBN-13
9780198703686
eBay Product ID (ePID)
225516795
Product Key Features
Author
Nicole Reinhardt
Format
Hardback
Language
English
Subject
Regional History
Type
Textbook
Dimensions
Weight
764g
Height
242mm
Width
162mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
Oxford
Spine
28mm
Content Note
3 Black and White Figures
Author Biography
Nicole Reinhardt studied History and Romance Languages at the universities of Heidelberg, Coimbra, and Freiburg i.Br. She holds a PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute in Florence. Before taking up the post at Durham University in 2009 she taught early modern history at the universities of Rostock and Lyon 2 and worked as a DAAD-Lecturer at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris.
Date of Publication
06/10/2016
Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Genre
Regional History
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