Religious Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century Nordic countries: an introduction

This chapter argues for the continued importance of studying the intertwining of Enlightenment and confessional culture in order to increase our understanding of how the Enlightenment took shape in the Nordic countries during the long eighteenth century. Proceeding from a careful evaluation of current scholarship, it provides an overview of political, cultural and socio-economic tendencies in the two early-modern Nordic states in relation to the overall theme of the book. On the basis of this inventory, specific characteristics of the Lutheran North were selected to form the structure of the ensuing chapters. In comparison to other parts of Europe, the specific setting for Enlightenment ideas and practices that materialized in the Nordic countries was marked by the rural character of these countries, as well as by their two hundred years of almost undisturbed mono-confessional Lutheranism.