The Religion/Politics Distinction in Early Modern England and Europe
For decades, early modern historians have argued - correctly - that it is anachronistic to apply our concepts of religion and politics, and particularly the distinction between them, to early modern life. Particularly in the centuries following the Reformation, scholars sometimes assert, religion and politics were so closely bound together as to be indistinguishable.
Any account of the development of politics and political thought must reckon with the relationship between politics and religion; but, as this talk shows, the early modern categories of 'politics' and 'religion' were hardly indistinguishable; rather, writers, clergymen, and politicians, for reasons alternatively profound and contingent, regularly attempted to draw quite bold distinctions between the two. This talk offers a first pass at understanding why and how distinguishing between 'religion' and 'politics' became a standard part of early modern discourse, and connects this discursive practice to longer-term transformations in the conceptual history of these terms in the early modern era.
All welcome
– This event is free, but booking is required.
This page was last updated on 24 March 2025
