Politics, Religion and Law in Early Modern East-Central Europe

The early modern period, stretching from 1500 to 1789, is one of the most engaging periods of history. Beginning with the upheavals of the Reformation, and ending with the French Revolution, it was a dramatic time of wars and violence, but also of fundamental changes in society, religion, ideas and everyday life, without neglecting strong continuities with the past. The course provides an introduction to the historical development of some important political ideas and institutions in East-Central Europe, with a keen eye on the links between this geographical area, loosely defined, and other European countries. Particular attention will be given to the use of historical, philosophical, religious and legal arguments in the shaping of the so-called “modern political thought”, as inextricably tied with historical events and the life of political Institutions such as States, representative assemblies, Estates, factions and ideological movements, etc.

Course content

1. Introduction: methodological issues in Philosophy and History

2-3. Faith, Heresy and the Just War: Jan Hus and Paulus Vladimiri at the Council of Constance (1415)

4-5. Heresy and political rebellion: Lutherans and Anti-Trinitarians in east-central Europe during the Wars of Religion (16th century)

6-7. War and/or peace in the Counter-Reformation: theoretical and practical issues during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)

8-9. The Polish "Golden Freedom" in European context

10-11. Natural Law and the Law of Nations in early modern central Europe during the Enlightenment: the case of Prussia

12-13. Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Considerations on the Government of Poland (1772)

14-15. The Polish Constitution of 3 may 1791 in European context

Knowledge – knowledge of the meaning and the intellectual uses of key political concepts as just war, heresy, freedom, sovereignty, democracy, State, equality and rights in the early modern period of the history of Eastern and Central Europe.

Competence – the ability to explore the rival theoretical frameworks of the intellectual “traditions” of absolutism, constitutionalism, natural law, liberalism and egalitarianism, through the analysis of important texts and documents set into their historical and cultural context.

Skills - openness towards the recognition of historical character of development of some important political institutions as well as the modern political thought.