From “the radical reformation” to “the radical enlightenment”? The specter and complexities of spiritualism in early modern England, Germany, and the low countries

This Special Issue arises from a symposium held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in July 2019. That symposium was part of the “Amsterdamnified” research program funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2015-2022). In this essay, the editors introduce the scope and themes of the Special Issue, provide a brief historical overview of some key aspects of sixteenth-century Protestant spiritualism, outline a series of historiographical questions that are important for this subject's past and ongoing study, and highlight how the essays that follow relate to these questions and to one another.