A Companion to the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe Hardcover - 2010

From the rear cover

The term Catholic Enlightenment is no longer considered oxymoronic within the historical profession. Still, it is a term that is much debated and much misunderstood; this is especially true amongst Anglo-American scholars. Indeed, the scholarship of such historians from Sebastian Merkle and Bernard Plongeron established the concept of a distinctly Catholic eighteenth-century reform for Continental historians well in advance of their English speaking colleagues. Still, Anglo-American historiography is ready to consider a distinctly Catholic and reformist dimension to the Age of Enlightenment. This volume aims to provide an essential guide to scholarship on the Catholic Enlightenment by providing a country-by-country survey of the major events, figures, text and subsequent scholarship of the Catholic Enlightenment. Moreover, this volume makes two other important contributions: first it brings together European, English and American scholars as contributors. Second, and more importantly, essays contained in the volume significantly broaden the scope of the Catholic Enlightenment from the center (France, Holy Roman Empire, Italian States) to also include the periphery of Catholic Europe, including Poland, and Malta.