The reception of ancient Christian literature in the 17th century was not limited to theology or dogmatics; the multitude of genres is indicative of the way patristic texts were dealt with. Using selected paradigms (comparative literature, encyclopedias, biblical hermeneutics, interdenominational conflict, philology, philosophical argumentation), the articles in this volume provide a quantitative evaluation of patristic quotations in the 17th century while also focusing on the way in which the altered understanding of the patristic texts is linked to the changed conditions under which they were read. In spite of the progress made in scholarship in the 17th century, there was a crisis in education and breaks with tradition. One of the results of this was that Augustine in particular lost his previously unchallenged position in the 16th century. With contributions by:Silke-Petra Bergjan, Hanns Christof Brennecke, Irene Dingel, Ralph Häfner, Karla Pollmann, Scott Mandelbrote, Diana Stanciu, Johann Anselm Steiger

Born 1962; 1992 Dr.theol. Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich; 1999 Habilitation in Church History at the Humboldt University in Berlin; since 2000 Professor of Church History (from the Early Church to the Time of Reformation) at the University of Zurich.