Throughout, special attention is paid to the religiously diverse communities of central and eastern Europe, an area that has often been overlooked by scholars who have focused more exclusively on Protestant/Catholic relations in the western half of the continent.Ĭontributors to this volume argue that the significance of conciliation efforts has been neglected by scholars, in part because it has been absorbed into discussions of toleration, and in part because of the tendency to project contemporary confessional perspectives on the past.
This volume investigates the activities of those who worked for the restoration of ecclesial unity, first in the conciliar era, then in the early years of the Protestant reformations, and finally during the “confessional age” when theological and cultural distinctives of competing religious groups began to emerge more clearly. The church was divided, and there did not appear to be any obvious solution to the crisis that began in the late fourteenth century with the Great Western Schism (1378-1415). From the conciliar to the confessional age the normal challenges that peacemakers perennially faced were magnified.
Religious conciliators have always faced resistance and critique as they mediate between groups devoted to ideological agendas that leave little room for maneuver and negotiation.
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