Orthodoxie, ketterij en consensus, 1670-1850. Drie historische vertogen over religie en openbaarheid

Abstract

Orthodoxy, heresy and consensus, 1670-1850. Three historical discourses on religion and the public sphere

The idea of a ‘religious consensus’ hardly seems applicable to the religious history of the Netherlands during the ‘long’ eighteenth century (1670-1850). It appears to contradict such religious phenomena as ‘tolerance’ and ‘pillarization’, which are considered to be typical features of Dutch history. Consequently, church historical accounts tend to project a form of confessional apartheid on the Dutch religious past. Religious history is rarely interpreted in terms or concepts that are not derived from the Christian church or from Christianity.

Moreover, Dutch church history has a strong tendency to focus on biographical, archival or philological research. This article contains a sketch of three interconnected intellectual discourses on orthodoxy, heresy and consensus. Together, they provide a conceptual framework which allows us to interpret religious ideas in a light not informed by religious ideology. During the long eighteenth century, a period that marks the transition from the ancien regime to the nation state, each of the three discourses contributed to the formation of a religious public sphere. Focusing respectively on politics, history and culture, the three discourses fit into the more general development of the religious public sphere from ‘confessional’ to ‘pedagogical’.

This article is part of the special issue 'Godsdienst in Nederland'.