This volume contains expanded and translated versions of papers presented at the annual conference of the Arbeitskreis für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde in Stuttgart in 2008. The editors write that by publishing in Romanian they sought to further the society's goal of transnational and interdisciplinary dialogue. The book is not available in German nor in English.
The point of departure is the 1846 verse of Maximilian Leopold Moltke: “Tolerant Transylvania, safe refuge of every faith…” which is an implicit reference to the Transylvanian Diet's decision in 1568 to grant equal status to the Unitarians alongside the Calvinist Reformed Church, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics. The solid introductory studies by Joachim Bahlcke and Gerald Volkmer provide the historical and legal context for religious diversity in early modern Transylvania. Bahlcke argues that contemporaries tended to view religious coexistence as a competitive situation rather than a positive good, while Volkmer analyzes the evolution of the religious regime in Transylvania between 1542 and 1699. The case studies that follow draw on different categories of sources, from visual arts, to hymnology, to travelogues.
One striking theme that emerges is the proximity of Saxon Lutheran practice to Catholicism during the era of the Principality. Maria Crăciun's article (a version of which already appeared in English in 2009) finds that Saxon churches banned statuary, side altars, and Marian themes after the Reformation, but unlike the Calvinists, they retained their painted main altars. Harald Roth cites similarities in Saxon religious practices to those of the Catholics: liturgies were still commonly in Latin, auricular confession was heard, and the old vestments still were used. Both authors argue that Hungarian Calvinism was viewed as more threatening than Catholicism, which was itself on the defensive from the mid to late seventeenth century. The survey of the legislation of the Diet by Enikő Rüsz-Fogarasi in this volume suggests that the policy toward Catholics was even-handed. The concluding study by Ulrich Andreas Wien largely agrees with Crăciun and Roth, but his analysis of Saxon hymnals finds some openness to the Reformed tradition.
Tamás Szőcs and Robert Born contribute useful bibliographic surveys of hymnals and costume albums. The chapters on travelogues by Detlef Haberland and Mihaela Grancea are more theoretical than substantive in nature, reflecting on the reliability and source value of travel literature. The careful study of young theologian Conrad Jacob Hiltebrandt's travel account, by Gábor Kármán, will be of great interest both to students of this genre and to regional specialists. Hiltebrandt (1629–79) was a native of Stettin who accompanied a Swedish diplomat on journeys in the region. Kármán provides a biography of the writer and places his account in the context of the Apodemik or “travel art” of itinerant students, who were expected to record their travel impressions in a standard form. Hiltebrandt had little to say about the religious practices of the groups he encountered, but he agreed with those contemporaries who saw religious diversity and tolerance as an unfortunate phenomenon.
The construction of the Other by religious actors is the focus of interesting studies by Alexandru Ciocîltan and Greta-Monica Miron. The former traces the eighty-two-year history of the Saxon Lutheran congregation of Câmpulung in Wallachia through the eyes of Franciscan missionaries, whereas the latter examines Jesuit portrayals of themselves and the Romanians, both Orthodox and Greek Catholic. The judgments of these informants were evidently self-serving. The same might be said of the portrayal of Romanian Orthodoxy in the writings of Johannes Honterus and Johannes Tröster, examined by Andreas Müller.
Stefan Sienerth, Irmgard Sedler, and Márta Fata contribute chapters on the eighteenth century. Sienerth traces the influence of Pietism in Saxon schools, publishing, and hymnody, with a focus on the later politician Andreas Teutsch (1669–1730), who experienced a Pietist conversion and was an associate of August Hermann Francke. Fata suggests that the travels of Joseph II in Transylvania in 1773 contributed to the evolution of his critical attitude toward the re-Catholicization efforts of his mother, Maria Theresa. The longest and most original chapter is Sedler's study of the religion of the so-called Landler, crypto-Protestants who were deported from Austria to Transylvania beginning in 1734. Her analysis of interrogation protocols suggests that the Landlers' faith was resistant to Austrian constraint, yet sometimes also to Saxon Lutheran orthodoxy.
This is a high-quality, well-indexed compilation on a coherent theme, reasonably priced for the Romanian market, and deserving of a wide audience.
