The Reformation in Global Perspective[Note 1. I would like to thank Kaya Şahin, Ulrike Strasser, ...]

Concepts and methods introduced by the “new world history” present important opportunities to contextualize the European Reformation in transregional frames of reference. A global approach allows historians to situate the Reformation more fully within the orbit of people, ideas, and cultural goods that interacted with one another across the early modern world. A number of historians who study missionary encounters, especially those of Jesuits, have already initiated global methodologies in analyzing the Reformation overseas. Other scholars have pointed to ways in which an engagement with the wider world influenced European societies. These works indicate the rich possibilities for looking at the Reformation with new eyes. In assessing this scholarship, this article discusses the prospects and challenges for adopting global perspectives in the study of the Reformation.