Van Kley, Dale K.

“This volume contains a superb collection of essays that will revolutionize current scholarship on religion, politics, and Enlightenment in eighteenth-century Europe.”—Susan Rosa, Northeastern Illinois University

“This book sets new standards for the comparative study of religion during the Enlightenment. It challenges us to correct the distorting effects of 1789, to consider the religious rationales of the anciens regimes, and to weigh the challenges that orthodoxy and heterodoxy posed to them. It is certain to be the starting point for many debates.” —Jonathan Clark, author of English Society 1660-1832 and The Language of Liberty 1660-1832

“This is a beautifully conceived collection of essays, remarkably coherent in its argument for the centrality of religious debates in the genesis of political dissent in the eighteenth century. Constitutional government, representative institutions, and respect for individual rights have long been viewed as flowing primarily from heretical and enlightened sources that challenged Christian orthodoxy and political absolutism. The contributors to this volume show how debates within Christian churches were equally significant as a source for ideas and institutions that challenged religious and political authority. . . . This book is a model for how comparative studies can succeed in opening up questions of the greatest interest to historians of Europe.” —Thomas Kselman, University of Notre Dame

“A fascinating journey through the Europe of the Enlightenment . . . in this important volume an extraordinarily incisive picture is offered to the reader. Religion and Politics in Enlightenment Europe is a fundamental work that solicits a renewed reflection on the great changes in progress in European society before the French Revolution and on the deeply dynamic role played by religion and particularly by religious dissent to facilitate the difficult passage from the Ancien Régime to the modern world.” —Professor Mario Rosa, Sculoa Normale Superiore

JAMES E. BRADLEY is Geoffrey W. Bromiley Professor of Church History at Fuller Theological Seminary.

DALE K. VAN KLEY is professor of early modern European history at Ohio State University.