Performing the Reformation

Public Ritual in the City of Luther
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-19-973971-4
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 425 g

Reihe: Oxford Ritual Studies Series

The home of Martin Luther for thirty six years and seat of the German Reformation, Wittenberg, Germany is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Wittenberg has long been Protestant sacred space, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the city and surrounding region have been developing their considerable cultural capital. Today, Wittenberg is host to two large-scale annual Luther-themed festivals, and is becoming a center for pilgrimage and heritage tourism. In a
recent study, Charles Taylor notes that festivity is experiencing a renaissance as "one of the new forms of religion in our world." Festivals and pilgrimage routes are an integral part of contemporary religion and spirituality, and important cultural institutions in a globalized world.

In Performing the Reformation, Stephenson offers a field-based case study of contemporary festivity and pilgrimage in the City of Luther. Welcome to Lutherland, where atheists dress up as monks and nuns for Luther's Wedding; conservative Lutherans work to sacralize the secular, carnival-like festivities; and medieval players, American Gospel singers, and Peruvian pan flute bands compete for the attention of the bustling crowds. Festivals and tourism in Wittenberg include a range of performative
genres (parades and processions, liturgies and concerts, music and dance), cut across multiple cultural domains (religion, politics, economics), and effect connections and shifts among identities (religious, secular, American, German, traditional, postmodern). Incorporating visual methodologies and
grounded in historical and social contexts, Stephenson provides an on-the-ground account of the annual Luther's Wedding Festival, the Reformation Day Festival, and Lutheran pilgrimage. He also brings his case study into dialogue with important methodological and theoretical issues informing the fields of ritual studies and performance studies.

A model of interdisciplinary research, the book includes a DVD with over 2.5 hours of material, extending and animating textual accounts and interpretations.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stephenson, Barry

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Praktische Theologie Liturgik, Christliche Anbetung, Sakramente, Rituale, Feiertage
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christliche Kirchen, Konfessionen, Denominationen Protestantismus, evangelische und protestantische Kirchen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Illustrations
Introdcution: APPROACHING LUTHERLAND
1. OPENING THE DOOR
2. THE WITTENBERG FESTIVALS
3. A MIGHTY FORTRESS?
4. MARTIN LUTHER, GERMAN HERO
5. SOCIABILITY, CONVIVIALITY
6. THE CARNIVALESQUE, PROCESSING CHANGE
7. PILGRIMAGE, SACRED SPACE
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
Bibliography
Index

DVD CONTENTS
Introduction (9:49)
Legend to Portal (6:46)
Wedding Montage (3:46)
Tetzel at the Doors (4:38)
Confirmands (4:04)
The Animators (40:32)
Processing (24:09)
Music (2:37)
Martin (3:11)
Lutherland-Fatherland (23:22)
Worship (38:32)

Extras
Images of Luther's Wedding, 2005 (PowerPoint)
Luther Protests (PowerPoint)
Reformation Day Brochure, 2005 (pdf)
Luther's Wedding Brochure, 2005(pdf)
Selected Websites (pdf)
Yale Conference Paper, Sensory Overload (pdf)
* Extras are accessible by opening the disc in a computer's DVD-ROM drive

Über Autor(innen)

Barry Stephenson is an independent reseacher and Instructor affiliated with the Department of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.