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Abstract
The Impact of Luther's Reformation on the development of Church Law in the Netherlands. This essay describes how essential the specific history of the reformation in the Netherlands was for the developments of reformed church law in that country. The Dutch reformation was relatively late and was more Calvinistic than Lutheran. Calvin's model of structuring the church, the essential effect of the refugee situation of many reformed believers and the fact that the revolt as well as the reformation were movements mainly ,from below', result in a church polity with the following characteristics: self-government of each individual congregation, active involvement of all church members, independence towards political authorities and a presbyterial-synodical church organisation. This church model was reached through a series of synodical meetings that started in the 1560ies and came to a conclusion at the Synod of Dordt in 1618/1619.

In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, a movement of 'modernists' or 'liberals' began to manifest itself within Dutch Protestantism. Modernists firmly believed to be the heralds of a 'second Reformation', harmonising Christianity with contemporary intellectual and cultural life, and as such preventing Christianity from losing its significance and plausibility in the age to come. However, instead of becoming the new mainstream in church and society, their movement failed to exert the attraction and influence that had seemed to be within reach in its formative phase. This fostered among modernists a feeling of disappointment that even developed into a feeling of marginalisation and desperation in the decades preceding the Second World War. Why was this so? This study advances both a new approach to and a new interpretation of the development of the Dutch modernist movement between 1870 and 1940. Making extensive use of sources that have so far been largely neglected, it looks at the modernist movement as a discourse community grouped round the opinion magazine De Hervorming. It deals with a wide range of themes, including modernists' self-perception vis-à-vis Christian orthodoxy, self-understanding as a community of faith, attitude towards other alternatives to orthodoxy, class-consciousness, literary criticism, political commitment, and involvement with foreign mission. Supported by a comparison between the development of the modernist movement in the Netherlands and that of similar groups elsewhere, this study argues that the causes of modernists' lack of appeal and lack of influence were much more fundamental than is acknowledged in historiography.

Polemik in den Schriften Melchior Hoffmans. Inszenierungen rhetorischer Streitkultur in der Reformationszeit" is a study of pamphlets written as a reaction to, and attempt for, expansion of the Lutheran and Zwinglian Reformation. Melchior Hoffman's work has, so far, almost solely been investigated by historians of religion and thus focused merely on religious topics and argumentation, and rather seldomly on the literary aspects of his pamphlets – such as rhetorics, argumentation strategies and text compilation. In order to close this gap of research on Melchior Hoffman and – in the sense of a New Historicism approach – give him as a non-canonical author more attention, this book focuses on the literary qualities of the texts. It is thus the first full-length study on Melchior Hoffman by a literary scholar. Not only has little been written on Melchior Hoffman, but also about lay writers in the Reformation at all. Thus, the book delivers new perspectives within the field of Reformation pamphlet writers. Theoretical significance is an integral part of the study, with a focus on developing a new theoretical concept for analyzing polemic texts. The innovative approach combines post-modern theories like (constructivist) Cultural Studies, and Performativity concepts with Communication Analyses and Classical Rhetorics. By doing so, it provides a unique approach to texts from the 16th century, which can easily and reasonably be applied to polemical texts of the 21st century as well as to even older texts than Hoffman's.
The book has been written in the research field of German Literature, but will be of great interest for both literary scholars and historians (of religion or culture). - Als 'radikaler Reformator' geriet Melchior Hoffman immer wieder in Konflikte mit Vertretern der lutherischen und zwinglischen Reformation. Die Auseinandersetzungen über die 'wahre Lehre Gottes' schlugen sich dabei in unterschiedlichen Textsorten und formen nieder: Hoffman stritt in polemischen Einzelschriften, Schriftwechseln sowie einem Reformationsdialog und polemisierte sogar in Bibelkommentaren und Traktaten. Diese Schriften Hoffmans werden hier erstmals unter literaturwissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten behandelt. Sie werden als Orte der Performanz einer rhetorischen Streitkultur verstanden, die typisch für die Reformationszeit und generell für religiöse Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Theologie und Laienfrömmigkeit sind: In der schriftlichen Inszenierung des Streits manifestiert sich die komplexe kulturelle Wechselwirkung zwischen den rhetorischen Normen und Traditionen auf der einen und der individuellen Auseinandersetzung mit ihnen auf der anderen Seite. Das textuelle In-Szene-Setzen ist somit als performative Handlung zu verstehen, die Polemik selbst als deren grundlegendes inszenatorisches Prinzip.
Kerstin Lundström untersucht Hoffmans Polemik mittels einer Kombination aus Rhetorikanalyse und modernen Methoden der Kommunikations- und Performativitätsanalyse. Das Ergebnis ist die Identifizierung unterschiedlicher Konstellationen der Rede, die maßgeblich mit der sprachlichen Ausgestaltung zusammenwirken. Der Fokus liegt insbesondere darauf, wie die einzelnen Bausteine von Hoffmans vielschichtiger Polemik – auf Text- und auf Kontextebene – ineinander greifen und ihre performative Wirkmächtigkeit entfalten.

Introduction : the role of Reformed Christianity in the commercial and colonial endeavors of the Dutch Golden Age -- The Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands and the international concerns of the Calvinist ministry -- The directors of the Dutch West India Company and the religious activity of Dutch merchants in Europe -- Baptized by water and fire : the religious ideology and rites of the company's early fleets and conquests -- The challenges and shortcomings of public worship in the company's first forts and colonial settlements -- Calvinist reformers in Dutch Brazil and the impacts of reform on Portuguese Catholics before the revolt -- Unrighteous rulers, sinful settlers, and religious dissenters in New Netherland and the Dutch Caribbean -- The harvest was great, the laborers few : Dutch mission theology and outreach among Africans and Indians -- Tensions and conflicts over religious resources and power in the West India Company's later years -- Conclusion : the West India Company, the East India Company, and the Catholic powers in comparative perspective.

The problem of translation -- The Hebrew text -- The Septuagint : the story of Andrew and Zoe -- Jerome and the Latin Vulgate -- Women and marriage in Reformation Europe -- Luther's German Bible -- An English Bible or a Bible in English : William Tyndale, Hebrew scholarship and the Authorized Version -- The Dutch state translation : a declaration of independence -- Some synoptic observations -- Summary and conclusion

The Reformation in the Low Countries fascinates both church historians and general historians. Religious change and political revolution went hand in hand. The history of the Reformation is an integral part of the history of the birth of the Dutch nation. Although well-researched, its attraction is renewed with each successive historiographical fashion. Far less well-known is the history of Dutch religious life after the Reformation, Although a lot of detailed research has been done in this field, it is very difficult to give a synthesis of Dutch church history during the early modern period. The main problem is the apparent impossibility of integrating church history into the general history of the Dutch Republic. In modern works on Dutch history religion simply fades away somewhere around the middIe of the seventeenth century, only to reappear around the middle of the nineteenth century. No conceptual tools have been devised to come to grips with all that lies in between .

Dissenting Daughters reveals the vital contribution made by devout women to the spread and practice of the Reformed faith in the Dutch Republic in the 16th and 17th centuries, drawing on the histories of six women: Cornelia Teellinck, Susanna Teellinck, Anna Maria van Schurman, Sara Nevius, Cornelia Leydekker, and Henrica van Hoolwerff.