W2 Reading – Reformation & the Disenchantment Debate (Walsham, 2008)

Origins of the “Disenchantment” Thesis

• Max Weber (1904–05)
  • Coined the term entzauberung (“disenchantment”) in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
  • Argued that ascetic Protestantism rejected “sacramental magic,” fostering a rationalized, inward faith that expelled numinous forces from everyday life.
  • Calvinist doctrines of vocation and predestination created psychological incentives for disciplined economic activity.
  • Saw the Reformation as part of a larger historical process eliminating magical–supernatural assumptions and enabling capitalism.
• Ernst Troeltsch (contemporary of Weber)
  • Offered a more nuanced, theological version, still casting the Reformation as an indirect agent of modernization.
• Intellectual Context
  • Thesis strongly linked to narratives of modernity, secularization, and the triumph of “reason” over “superstition.”
  • Influenced later Anglophone historiography and popular culture.

Classic Anglophone Formulations

• Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971)
  • Adopted Weberian logic—Reformation shifted religion from ritual to internalized dogma.
  • Emancipated English people from “superstitious” beliefs once “rightly disdained by intelligent persons.”
  • Saw process as popular, rapid, and from below rather than imposed.
  • Cast Protestant “rational” religiosity as a step toward technological modernity.
• Other Weber-inspired scholars
  • Bernhard Vogler; Richard van Dülmen; Thomas Nipperdey; Carlos Eire.
  • Linked Protestant iconoclasm to the Scientific Revolution and an “abstract” faith based on reason.

Revisionism Since the 1980s

• Robert W. Scribner
  • Emphasized continuities between medieval and Protestant mentalities.
  • Reformation modified, rather than destroyed, the “economy of the sacred.”
  • Protestantism created new rituals and even its own magic.
  • Helped inspire a broader shift from “success” to “failure” narratives of Reformation impact.
• “Popular Culture” & Mentalité Studies
  • Focus on grass-roots practice, syncretism, resistance to elite theology.
  • Highlights gaps between doctrine and lived religion.
• Ulinka Rublack, Reformation Europe (2005)
  • Stresses limits of disenchantment and even intensification of sacramental assumptions to c.1650.

Extension to the Long Reformation

• Concept of a Long Reformation (1500–1800)
  • Recognizes centuries-long evolution rather than a short, decisive break.
• Post-1700 Studies
  • Owen Davies, Jane Shaw, Sasha Handley: survival of ghosts, angels, miracles in “Age of Reason.”
  • Hanoverian & Victorian occult revivals suggest re-emergence rather than novelty.

Parallel Catholic Developments

• Counter-Reformation not merely reactive; shared goals of moral reform and anti-superstition.
• Tridentine Church both restrained and authenticated miracles.
  • Inquisitorial scrutiny of relics, visions, and aspiring saints.
• Baroque Catholicism re-embraced the miraculous yet policed fraud.

Medieval Reassessment

• Eamon Duffy et al.: Late medieval piety vibrant, not moribund.
• Church had long policed superstition (e.g., Guibert de Nogent, John Gerson).
• Skepticism and belief co-existed; canonization processes used “medical” tests.
• Demonological elaboration partly a response to crisis of belief (Walter Stephens).

Postmodern & Anthropological Influences

• Relativizing “reason”; retrieving internal logic of astrology, witchcraft, providence.
• Stuart Clark: demonology as sophisticated “science of the preternatural.”

Reformation’s Ambiguous Legacy

• Anti-sacramental Rhetoric
  • Polemics portrayed Catholic practices as “stocks and stones.”
  • Iconoclasm offered experiential proof of image impotence.
• Providence & Demonology Remained Central
  • Heightened sense of apocalypse → intensified witch-hunting.
• New Sacred Persons & Objects
  • Protestant martyrs, charismatic preachers, Luther’s “incombustible” images, royal “healing touch.”
  • Bibles/prayer books became amulets; destroyed stained glass kept as relics.
• Ritual Persistence & Reinvention
  • Fasts, rogations, exorcisms, sabbatarianism show ongoing ritual efficacy.
• Space & Time Resacralized
  • Consecrated churches; healing mineral springs; national thanksgivings (e.g., 5 Nov. Gunpowder Day).

Engines of Change Beyond Theology

• Print Culture
  • Dual role: spreads occult handbooks yet mass-produces skeptical exposés.
  • Commercial “strange-but-true” genre → eventual credibility crisis.
• Social Polarization
  • Learned disdain labelled marvels as “old wives’ tales.”
  • Folklore collection (18th–19th c.) both preserved and patronized popular belief.
• Private vs Public Spheres
  • Gentlemen hid supernatural interests (e.g., Robert Boyle’s self-censorship).
• Party & Confessional Conflict
  • Demonology weaponized in polemics; over-use eroded authority.
  • 1736 Witchcraft Act repeal political more than intellectual.

Science, Enlightenment & Re-enchantment

• Religious Roots of Science
  • Newton, Boyle pursued natural philosophy to glorify providence; involved in alchemy.
  • “Laws of Nature” re-defined miracles rather than abolished them.
• Experimental Authentication
  • Joseph Glanvill: used empirical methods to prove spirits.
  • Miracles and ghosts investigated with Baconian rigor.
• Deism & Skepticism
  • Attacked clerical “priestcraft,” not necessarily God.
• Counter-Moves
  • Methodist revival and Romanticism sought spiritual re-infusion; folklore and Gothic literature aestheticized the supernatural.

Cycles Rather than Linear Decline

• Walsham proposes thinking in loops of desacralization and resacralization.
• Early Reformation skepticism → later 17th-century re-supernaturalization.
• Enlightenment prompts both disbelief and apologetic miracle collections.
• Ongoing modern “occult revivals” echo earlier patterns.

Historiographical Implications

• Challenge teleological models tying Protestantism to inevitable secular modernity.
• Necessity of integrating medieval, early modern, and modern periods; avoid rigid period labels.
• Recognize interplay of belief/unbelief, elite/popular, practice/theory.
• Disenchantment thesis now seen as historiographical “red herring”; future work may abandon linear paradigm altogether.