Literature and religion in the German speaking world : from 1200 to the present day The relationship between literature and religion in German is unique in the European tradition. It is essential to the definition of German Austrian and Swiss cultural identity in both the Protestant and Catholic traditions and crucial to our understanding of what has been called the special path of German intellectual life. Offering in depth essays by leading scholars Literature and Religion in the German Speaking World analyses this relationship from the beginnings of vernacular literature in German via the Reformation early modern and Enlightenment periods to the present day. It shows how such fundamental concepts as subjectivity identity and modernity itself arise from the interrelation between religious and secular modes of understanding and how this interrelation is inseparable from its expression in literature