Lehner presents in this book a long-term perspective on the so-called “Catholic Reformation,” which goes beyond councils, decrees, or political battles, and delves into the concrete spiritual life: how people prayed, which devotions they practiced, and what fears, desires, and hopes moved Catholics between the end of the Council of Trent and the Enlightenment, both in Europe and in the new territories where Catholicism was becoming a global religion.
Through spiritual treatises, manuals for confessors, letters, sermons, and writings of saints and spiritual directors, the author reconstructs a very rich inner landscape: the different forms of prayer, the centrality of the Eucharist, the importance of the sacraments in daily life, the practices of examination of conscience, the sensitivity to sin and mercy, the role of religious orders and new movements, as well as the participation of laypeople, women, and the faithful from other continents in this spiritual renewal.