Negotiating the Secular and the Religious in the German Empire

“This volume reveals the vibrancy of debates around religion, the gendered character of secularism, and the pivotal role of missionaries in defining the limits of the orthodox, all of which were informed by transnational contexts.”• Central European History

“The volume offers a range of very useful answers to the difficult question of how to conceptualize and study the relationship between the religious and the secular in the German Empire. It takes the role of politics and the state seriously, but illustrates the myriad ways in which non-state actors were central to the process of redefining the secular in relation to the religious. It resists easy progress narratives of a gradual transition from a benighted state of religiosity towards an enlightened, secular one, and successfully historicizes a number of instances of the ‘constant making and unmaking of the religious and the secular’ in Germany and beyond.”• European History Quarterly

“With its strong lineup of contributors, this book adds valuable insights into the under-researched topic of what is meant by the secular, and also conveys the many ways in which the secular and the religious were intertwined in the German imperial context.”• Rebecca Bennette, Middlebury College

“Habermas addresses an important and often neglected aspect of German – and indeed European – history. The high quality of the scholarship will make this a significant contribution to the field.”• Professor Matthew Jefferies, University of Manchester