Several attempts have been made in recent years (e.g., by Ulrich Lehner and Ivo Cerman) to inject Central European case studies into the larger debate on the relationship between religion at large, and Catholicism in particular, and the Enlightenment. Given that substantial parts of this debate have taken place in English-language academia, it is essential to raise awareness for relevant German-language publications in the field; this review intends to do just that.

The present volume originates from a conference held in 2011. It contains a programmatic essay on the Katholische Aufklärung by the theologian Norbert Jung as well as sixteen papers organized into three sections on “regional perspectives,” “Josephinism and religious practice (Glaubenspraxis),” and “exemplary biographical sketches.” The first and last paper together best serve to illustrate a latent contradiction of the book. While Jung's introduction (23–51) sums up a discussion that is still largely concerned with a somewhat apologetic evaluation of the Katholische Aufklärung, Franz Leander Fillafer's comparative study of six well-chosen “Josephiners” is more focused on the making of the respective narratives as part of the state- and nation-building processes in nineteenth-century Austria (349–89). Not many studies in the book share at least part of Fillafer's interest in the interplay between historicization and political action; one exception is the chapter by Ondřej Bastl, Robert Pech, and Philip Steiner on the various rewritings of Josephinism in Bohemia up to the twentieth century (53–77), while another is Zoltán Gőzsy's off-mainstream reform periodization for multiethnic southern Transdanubia (135–47). Edith Szegedi also makes a valid point when she interprets the Transylvanian Konzivilitätsreskript (enlarging town citizenship) as aiming at homogeneity while in fact creating complexity (149–56).

Most articles are descriptive in their scope and design, which can be inspiring: Norbert Jung extensively covers abbot Franz Stephan Rautenstrauch's role in the controversy about the historical-critical exegetist Johann Lorenz Isenbiehl and his reading of Isaiah 7:14 (215–47), under due consideration of eighteenth-century theological scholarship. Dániel Bárth discusses a popular Franciscan exorcist against the backdrop of popular piety in Sombor (today Serbia) and his deplored removal from the community due to the bishop's intervention (79–101). Werner Simon explores the context of neo-Prussian Żagań through a detailed account of the educational reforms carried out by later abbot Benedict Strauch (267–95). Most contributions tell a good story, even if they stick to their circumscribed object, and avoid calling the presumed benchmarks of “Catholic Enlightenment” into question. Some articles, however, should also be read as synopses of already well-documented episodes (András Hegedűs: 103–15; Horst Miekisch: 155–66; Peter Šoltés: 167–84).

While the book merits praise as a well-reviewed and interesting collection of case studies, some doubts remain as to its overall scope. This should not weigh too heavily on the collection itself, as it reflects a more general problem of research on the “Catholic Enlightenment”: The methodological terms of the debate are largely those of the 1980s, and apart from the few mentioned exceptions, “Catholic Enlightenment” is taken for granted as a heuristic category. This can be fruitful, but it does not open up the wealth of displayed material to those strands of research not primarily interested in the somewhat exotic heading of “Katholische Aufklärung”—which might, for instance, have been achieved by cross-cutting according to topic. One such topic could be Roman ecclesiology, which was equally contested by canon law professor Franz Xaver Neupauer (Philipp Steiner: 329–47) and the Greek Catholics (György Janka: 117–34); and it would be exciting to see where Cistern Johann Ladislaus Pyrker (Norbert Spannenberger: 249–65) fits into Franz L. Fillafer's moving Josephinism tableau. (Almost) all the contributions could be easily framed against the discussions on empire, state and nation building, the premodern public sphere, practices and materiality of knowledge, women and Enlightenment agency, and media and space. Last, but not least, the concept of Katholische Aufklärung itself has a difficult and contested history that is reflected in 200 years of often controversial research.

In summary, the book contains large quantities of helpful material whose conceptualization is unfortunately largely missing. But precisely such a conceptual framing would be beneficial if one wishes the international debate on religion and Enlightenment to stop considering Central Europe as a somewhat exotic, delayed, and at any rate, incomprehensibly contradictory setting to be mentioned fleetingly in individual paragraphs on the “broader picture.”