Cambridge University Press Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany: The Rise of the Fourth Confession

Negotiating the boundaries of the secular and of the religious is a core aspect of modern experience. In mid-nineteenth-century Germany, secularism emerged to oppose church establishment, conservative orthodoxy, and national division between Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Yet, as historian Todd H. Weir argues in this provocative book, early secularism was not the opposite of religion. It developed in the rationalist dissent of Free Religion and, even as secularism took more atheistic forms in Freethought and Monism, it was subject to the forces of the confessional system it sought to dismantle. Similar to its religious competitors, it elaborated a clear worldview, sustained social milieus, and was integrated into the political system. Secularism was, in many ways, Germany's fourth confession. While challenging assumptions about the causes and course of the Kulturkampf and modern antisemitism, this study casts new light on the history of popular science, radical politics, and social reform. Review 'Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany is a highly original, deeply researched, elegantly argued, and very significant contribution to modern German history. Crossing virtually all of the topics of recent interest in the field, including secularization, anti-Semitism, the Kulturkampf, monism, the history of Berlin, and esoteric religious pursuits, Todd Weir blends recent research with older debates concerning Bismarck's policies, the Strange Death of German Liberalism, and the problem of Jewish assimilation. Readers will surely be impressed by the depth of Weir's research and the subtlety of his argumentation, and even subjects they thought they knew well will look different on viewing them from the perspective of 'the fourth confession'.' Suzanne L. Marchand, Louisiana State University 'Todd H. Weir's book is a social and political history of organized secularism in nineteenth-century Berlin as it unfolded in the context of the German confessional system. Rather than simply providing a conventional intellectual history of secularist ideas, this study focuses on the organizations that promoted 'free religious' or secularist worldviews, the sociological composition of their memberships, and the legal and political parameters in which they operated. The result is a tour de force of historical research and argumentation. Deeply grounded in archival sources and relevant social theory, Weir's study will force scholars to rethink how they approach the entire religious history of nineteenth-century Germany.' George S. Williamson, Florida State University 'Weir has produced an impressive study about a subject that belongs to a still largely unexplored territory … From the perspective of the twenty-first century the author is certainly correct: secularism has become an important voice in the concert of worldviews, even if today among [a] differentiated field of confessions and world religions.' Joachim Schmiedl, translated from Sehepunkte (sehepunkte.de) '… fascinating …' Marshall Poe, New Books in History (newbooksinhistory.com) 'By considering the interplay of secularism and confessionalism in nineteenth-century Germany, Weir has obliged historians of German religion and society to rethink both secularism and confession. [He] deftly shows how secularism existed not merely in conflict with the traditional confessions and state churches, but also how it was inextricably linked to them. Confessional structures regulated not only confessing members of the churches and their congregations, but religious dissidents and those outside of the traditional confessions as well. Most importantly, Weir has provided historians of German religion and society [with] a compelling case for how the apparently disparate histories of increasing secularization and renewed sectarianism coexisted during the nineteenth century.' Stan M. Landry, German History 'Future scholars will have to contend with Weir's argument tha