Hausväterliteratur in the Educationand Spirituality of a Noblemanin the Early Modern Era

Authors

  • Lucie Rychnová Department of Chemical Technology of Monument Conservation, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Praha 6 – Dejvice, Czech Republic
  • Beáta Akimjaková Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Theology, The Catholic University in Ružomberok, Hrabovská cesta 1A, 034 01 Ružomberok, Slovak Republic
  • Viliam Judák Department of Philosophy and Historical Science, Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology of Cyril and Methodius, Comenius University in Bratislava, Kapitulská 26, 814 58 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
  • Ľubomír Hlad Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Hodžova 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovak Republic
  • Anton Ďatelinka Department of Practical Theology, Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology of Cyril and Methodius, Comenius University in Bratislava, Kapitulská 26, 814 58 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2022.2.503.514

Keywords:

Hausväterliteratur, Early Modern Era, spirituality, morality, Early Modern Literature

Abstract

Aim. The aim of this study is to discuss how important the so-called Hausväterliteratur genre was in the education and spirituality of (not only) aristocrats in the Early Modern Era.

Concept. This article will introduce the Hausväterliteratur as a literary genre that strongly influenced the spirituality and morality of its readers –householders, administrators of property, and their wives.

Methods. The method applied was text analysis. The social history method based on research of the primary sources was also employed..

Results. The study confirms that the treatises of the so-called Hausväterliteratur genre, kept in high numbers in European libraries in the Early Modern Age, carry a certain type of spirituality which calls for “true Christian life” following what was often a Protestant pattern (exhortation for frequent reading of the Bible).

Conclusion. Most of these books outline an ideal of the Christian life, characterised by the establishment of an order within the “household”, or “house”, i.e., the family in the broader sense, including both the manor owner and those closest to him as well as all his subjects and servants.

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Author Biographies

  • Lucie Rychnová, Department of Chemical Technology of Monument Conservation, University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Praha 6 – Dejvice, Czech Republic

    Lucie Rychnová, studied Art History and Theology at universities in Prague, London, Vienna and Jerusalem. In 2016 she successfully defended her doctoral thesis on the Landscape Composition of Count Frantisek Josef Schlik and “Landscape Creation“ around the Year 1700. She is now an assistant professor at the Institute for Chemical Technology for Restoration of Monuments at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. Her academic focus is on the commissioning of the 17th- and 19th-century aristocracy and the landscape and countryside during the Baroque period. 

  • Beáta Akimjaková, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Theology, The Catholic University in Ružomberok, Hrabovská cesta 1A, 034 01 Ružomberok, Slovak Republic

    The author is graduated from Comenius University in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic at the Roman
    Catholic Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology. She completed a master's degree in Catholic
    Theology with a focus on religious education. She passed a rigorous examination in the teaching of
    religious education at the Faculty of Education, KU in R. At the same faculty, she completed her
    doctoral studies in the field of Didactics of Religious Education. She received her habilitation at the
    Catholic University in Ružomberok in the field of Trade Union Didactics. She also graduated in the
    field of special pedagogy, she is a member of the religious congregation of the School Sisters of St.
    Francis of Assisi, where she is a member of the provincial council. She is the founder of the Juraj Páleš
    Institute in Levoča, she was its long-term director and she specialized in pre-school and elementary
    pedagogy, as well as in the special pedagogy of the mentally handicapped, the socially
    disadvantaged, and medical pedagogy. She is a member of the editorial and professional boards of
    several domestic and foreign journals. He currently works at the Institute of Sacred Art TI TF CU in
    the Spišska Kapitula in Spišske Podhradie, where he guarantees the study program of Teaching
    Music and Church Music.

  • Viliam Judák, Department of Philosophy and Historical Science, Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology of Cyril and Methodius, Comenius University in Bratislava, Kapitulská 26, 814 58 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    In the years 1980–1985, he studied theology at CMBF in Bratislava. He was ordained a priest on 16th of July, 1985 in Nitra. He has been serving as a chaplain in Nitra and Drietoma, where he has also been a parish administrator until the 1990s. At this time he had been studying in CMBF in Bratislava, where he had got his PhD. in sacra theologian. On 1st of September, 1990 he was appointed a prefect of the Clerical Seminary of St. Gorazd in Nitra and on the 18th of October, 1991, an ecclesiastical judge. Since 1990 he has been teaching Church history at RKCMBF UK in Bratislava and the Theological Institute in Nitra. In 1991–2005 he had been teaching also at the Pedagogic University in Nitra, at the Department of Ethics and Catechetics
    (today Constantine the Philosopher University). On the 1st of July, 1993 he was awarded the title of Associate Professor of the Cyril and Methodius Theological Faculty UK in Bratislava. In 1995–1998 he was a vice–dean of this faculty. From 1st of July, 1996 to the 1st of July, 2001 he has been a rector of the Clerical Seminary of St. Gorazd in Nitra. In 1997, the Holy Father John Paul II appointed him “the Chaplain of His Holiness“ (Mons.). He was the head of the Department of Church History in 1997–2006. On 13th of December, 1997,
    the President of the Slovak Republic appointed him Professor in the field of “catholic theology“. In 2001 he was elected Dean of the Roman Catholic Cyril and Methodius Theological Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava. He performed this function until 2004. On 9th of June, 2005, he was appointed the
    Bishop of Nitra by Pope Benedict XVI, and he was consecrated bishop in Nitra on the 16th of July, 2005. From October 2006 to September 2015, he had been a vice–president of the Episcopal Conference of Slovakia (KBS). He is the head of the Committee for Clergy and the Council for History of KBS. As a historian, he has been searching the Christian Antiquity and Middle Ages regarding Slovak Church history. He is an
    author of several monographs in the field of Church history and spiritual literature. 

  • Ľubomír Hlad, Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Hodžova 1, 949 74 Nitra, Slovak Republic

    He is an assistant professor at the Department of Religious Studies of the Constantine Philosopher University in Nitra and in theological Institute of RKCMBF UK in Nitra as well as a rector of the University Pastoral Centre in Nitra. He completed his theology studies in Nitra, and he has got his licentiate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Roma. He successfully defended his doctoral thesis “Eschatological Dimension in the Kerygmatic Theology of Hugo Rahner” and got his PhD. at the
    same university. At RKCMBF UK he was awarded the title of Associate Professor and the title of his post-doctoral dissertation is “Perspectives of Mariology in Postmodernism and in the Time of New Evangelization” (2017). Since 2006 he is a rector of UPC of Paul Strauss in Nitra. 

  • Anton Ďatelinka, Department of Practical Theology, Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology of Cyril and Methodius, Comenius University in Bratislava, Kapitulská 26, 814 58 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    ThLic. Anton Ďatelinka, PhD. (1986) is a catholic priest and assistant professor at the Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology of Cyril and Methodius at Comenius University in Bratislava. He attained his Master of Theology from the same university in 2011. He obtained his Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontificia Università Santa Croce in Rome in 2015. He received his doctorate in Catholic theology from Comenius University in Bratislava in 2019. His professional interests are liturgy, liturgical theology and the history of the liturgy.

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Published

2022-09-27

How to Cite

Rychnová, L., Akimjaková, B., Judák, V., Hlad, Ľubomír, & Ďatelinka, A. . (2022). Hausväterliteratur in the Educationand Spirituality of a Noblemanin the Early Modern Era. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 13(2), 503-514. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2022.2.503.514

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