期刊名称：Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden
印刷版ISSN：0165-0505
电子版ISSN：2211-2898
出版年度：2021
卷号：136
期号：1
页码：59-77
DOI：10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10897
出版社：Koninklijk Nederlands Historisch Genootschap
摘要：Self-avowedly influenced by the postmodernist critique of nineteenth-century ‘positivism’, Jesse Spohnholz's ambitious and multiple prize-winning 2017 The Convent of Wesel: The Event that Never was and the Invention of Tradition speaks at once to the political and institutional history of the Reformed churches of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany, to the role of archiving practices in shaping historical understanding, and to the nature of historical study. This review offers both an extended synopsis and a critique of the book. While recognizing its considerable achievement, it questions its framing of its findings about the Reformation era with reference to the ‘confessionalization’ debate, its reliance on a prefabricated narrative about archives as instruments of power and marginalization, and its mischaracterizations of post-Rankean historical practice and theory. Implications of the book’s findings for further research into the politics and personalities of the Reformation in the Low Countries are also suggested.
