Religion, Recht und Säkularisierung in der Frühen Neuzeit : Zur kulturellen Signatur der westlichen Christenheit

Abstract

The stimulating polarity of religion and law has determined the history of Christianity from the very beginning. In the Middle Ages, it is associated with the struggle between spiritual and secular power and, since the Reformation, with the dispute between the emerging denominations. Not least because of this, there is a constant interplay between secularizing tendencies and efforts to intensify religion. Both have an effect on the development of the law, often catalytically reinforcing or accelerating it, in some situations even providing a stimulus, but sometimes also inhibiting it. In the coexistence of these polarities, the peculiarity of Western Christianity becomes visible.