Overview

This book is about the relationship between belief, credibility, and credulity in post-Reformation Catholicism. It argues that, starting from the end of the sixteenth century and due to different political, intellectual, cultural, and theological factors, credibility assumed a central role in post-Reformation Catholic discourse. This led to an important reconsideration of the relationship between natural reason and supernatural grace and consequently to novel and significant epistemological and moral tensions. From the perspective of the relationship between credulity, credibility, and belief, early modern Catholicism emerges not as the apex of dogmatism and intellectual repression, but rather as an engine for promoting the importance of intellectual judgment in the process of embracing faith. To be sure, finding a balance between conscience and authority was not easy for early modern Catholics. This book seeks to elucidate some of the difficulties, anxieties, and tensions caused by the novel insistence on credibility that came to dominate the theological and intellectual landscape of the early modern Catholic Church. In addition to shedding light on early modern Catholic culture, this book helps us to understand better what it means to believe. For the most part, in modern Western society we don't believe in the same things as our early modern predecessors. Even when we do believe in the same things, it is not in the same way. But believe we do, and thus understanding how early modern people addressed the question of belief might be useful as we grapple with the tension between credibility, credulity, and belief.

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9780197608951

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It is written in an elegant and clear style. It is accessible to non-specialists who are interested in the development of post-Reformation Catholicism, and in how the Church wrestled with the task of holding together the promotion of devotion and the nurturing of faith with careful discernment of some of the wilder claims about supernatural interventions, and offering robust responses to diverse criticisms of church teaching and practices. This book should also prompt readers to question their own awareness of the sources of their beliefs, the influences that shape their assumptions and certainties, the reliability of the authorities they accept, and their usual modes of verifying truth claims. * John Sullivan, The Heythrop Journal *

It is written in an elegant and clear style. It is accessible to non-specialists who are interested in the development of post-Reformation Catholicism, and in how the Church wrestled with the task of holding together the promotion of devotion and the nurturing of faith with careful discernment of some of the wilder claims about supernatural interventions, and offering robust responses to diverse criticisms of church teaching and practices. This book should also prompt readers to question their own awareness of the sources of their beliefs, the influences that shape their assumptions and certainties, the reliability of the authorities they accept, and their usual modes of verifying truth claims. * John Sullivan, The Heythrop Journal * ...recommend this book as a primer on the true intellectual legacy of the Counter-Reformation. * James Lu, Journal of Religious History * It is an intriguing, well-written, and solid piece of research, useful even to those who would hesitate to share an overly benevolent judgement on the disciplinary and repressive institutions of the Tridentine Church. * Vincenzo Lavenia, Church History *

Author Information

Stefania Tutino is Professor of History at UCLA. She is the author of numerous books and essays on early modern Catholicism.

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