Reformational Political and Economic Ideas

Catalog description

This course explores the unique and lasting legacy of the Protestant Reformation and its contribution to the development of social, political, and economic ideas in the West. It will examine the historical context of the Reformation itself, its key themes and doctrines, and its impact on the political thought of the age. Next, it will investigate the successes and failures of this movement’s attempts to critically address the rising tide of revolutionary humanism which swept Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It will conclude with a discussion of its major practical and theoretical breakthroughs in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as its potential usefulness for addressing contemporary crises and conditions.