The Late Middle Ages and the Reformation

In the course of the last decades, Reformation research has gradually undergone change. Previously, a great deal of the work was purely concentrated on the theology: it was concerned with how Luther’s theology broke with that of the Middle Ages and marked a new start. Even though work on Luther’s theology still plays a significant role, it has become steadily more important to view the variety of the Reformation movement, and to put the Reformation into a broader historical context.

This context embraces on the one hand the church, theology and piety of the late Middle Ages, where we are seeing more and more clearly that many of the developmental trends point forward to changes that were followed through during the Reformation. On the other hand, it works on the transformations in reformed religion in the late 1500s and the 1600s. These transformations – often described under the title “The confessionalisation of Christianity” – were in many ways fundamental, and many of them also took place in parallel ways within Catholic Christianity.

Protestant religion does not only come to expression here through theology and church politics. Piety and spirituality are given decidedly more attention than just a generation ago, and research themes such as mysticism, rituals, religion and feelings or religion and art are high on the research agenda. Most of this is research material that makes room for and can be strengthened through interdisciplinary collaboration with other historical disciplines, such as the history of art and cultural history. The history of the reformation research environment also collaborates closely with colleagues in Germany and the other Nordic countries.

Permanent staff connected to the research area:

• Kari Elisabeth Børresen, Senior Professor
• Ingun Montgomery, Senior Professor
• Tarald Rasmussen, Professor

Research fellows connected to the research area:

• Jon Øygarden Flæten
• Bjørn Ole Hovda
• Dr. Roger Jensen
• Eivor Andersen Oftestad