Thematically organised, the book explores Catholicism as a minority culture that resorted to unorthodox means, both to retain its own identity, and to survive in a hostile political environment. It examines ritual, material culture, international networks, and above all relations: between laity and clergy, men and women, Catholics and Protestants...

As religious violence flares around the world, we are confronted with an acute dilemma: Can people coexist in peace when their basic beliefs are irreconcilable? Benjamin Kaplan responds by taking us back to early modern Europe, when the issue of religious toleration was no less pressing than it is today.

Divided by Faith begins in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, when the unity of western Christendom was shattered, and takes us on a panoramic tour of Europe's religious landscape--and its deep fault lines--over the next three centuries. Kaplan's grand canvas reveals the...