Dr. Wayne P. Te Brake,
Professor Emeritus of History, SUNY Purchase College.
Wednesday, May 2.
3:30-5:00 pm, EMU 230, Swindells Room.

Professor Te Brake is the author of many books and articles on social and religious movements in early modern Europe. His talk expands on his recent synthesis, Religious War and Religious Peace in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2017).  Religious War and Religious Peace analyzes six clusters of increasingly destructive religious wars between 1529 and 1651 and the settlements that brought these wars to an end. Rejecting the older authoritarian interpretations of the age of religious wars, the author uses traditional documentary sources as well as photographic evidence to show how a broad range Europeans – from authoritative elites to a colorful array of religious ‘dissenters’ – replaced the cultural ‘unity and purity’ of late-medieval Christendom with a variable and durable pattern of religious diversity, deeply embedded in political, legal, and cultural institutions.

Professor Te Brake’s talk is co-sponsored by the Department of History, the Oregon Humanities Center, the Department of Religious Studies, and the European Studies Program. The talk is free and open to the public.