The Passion of Christ and the Making of Christian Selves in Sixteenth-century Germany

This book argues that Lutheran and Catholic religious leaders in sixteenth-century Germany used Passion meditation to shape the faithful into Christian selves capable of navigating religious division and spiritual peril. Vincent Evener compellingly reveals how Lutherans transformed medieval motifs and practices of Passion meditation, and how Lutheran concerns, motifs, and techniques continually evolved. For instance, first-generation Lutheran reformers trained the faithful to read the present suffering and weakness of their church through the lens of Christ’s passion, but the practice eventually became threatening to Lutheran authorities. Evener also illuminates Catholic efforts in late sixteenth-century Bavaria to renew Passion meditation and devotion in distinctly Catholic forms that integrated inward and outward self, individual and community. This book is a fascinating study of how spiritualities and selfhoods were shaped by Reformation rivalries, anti-Jewish hostility, attitudes toward gender, devotional practices of imagination, mystical yearning, and more.