Polonia Reformata

Dr. habil. Piotr Wilczek is Professor Ordinarius at the Faculty of "Artes Liberales" of the University of Warsaw, Poland.
Dr. Günter Frank ist Direktor der Europäischen Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten und außerplanmäßiger Professor am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie.

Dr. phil. Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer ist Professorin em. für "Neuere deutsche Literatur" an der Universität Bern.

Johannes Schilling ist Professor im Ruhestand für Kirchengeschichte an der Universität Kiel.

Dr. Günther Wassilowsky ist Professor für Kirchengeschichte an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Siegrid Westphal ist Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls für Geschichte der Frühen Neuzeit an der Universität Osnabrück sowie Direktorin des Forschungszentrums Institut für Kulturgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit.

Tarald Rasmussen ist Professor für Kirchengeschichte an der Universität Oslo.

Dr. Bruce Gordon is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School.

Dr. Zsombor Tóth is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Literary Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

In his fascinating new book, Polonia Reformata. Essays on the Polish Reformation(s), Professor Piotr Wilczek of the University of Warsaw discusses selected aspects of Polish early modern religious history and literature, introducing them from a new perspective and emphasizing the great role of Poland's radical Reformation in European intellectual life. At the same time, the author presents the varieties of religious experience and expression to be found in the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth, and questions certain myths about Poland's Reformation and Counter-Reformation history and culture, which have featured in European historiography at least since the publication in 1685 of Stanislas Lubieniecki's Historia reformationis Polonicae. The book's general introduction about Polish "religion on the periphery" is followed by essays on the reception of John Calvin's works, the role of Socinianism, religious polemics and the major religious poets of the early modern period, including Jan Kochanowski, probably a Lutheran in his youth and an Erasmian Catholic later in life, and Erazm Otwinowski, the finest Polish-language poet in the community of the Polish Brethren (Socinians). In this engaging study, Professor Wilczek also looks at the broader European contexts that played an important role in the development of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Central and Eastern Europe. This meticulously researched book will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in early modern religion, culture, literature and history.

Polonia Reformata is a collection of fascinating essays which discuss the role of Christianity - both Catholic and Protestant - in the history and literature of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th centuries.

What role did Christianity play in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth?

Piotr Wilczek collected fascinating essays about selected aspects of Polish early modern religious history and literature, where the role of the Polish radical Reformation in European intellectual life is brought to the fore. What is more, Wilczek also presents the varieties of religious experience and expression in the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth. A general introduction about Polish "religion on the periphery" is followed by essays on the reception of John Calvin's works, the role of Socinianism, religious polemics and the major Christian poets of the early modern period.