Prof Bridget Heal
Head of School
Professor
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 46 2909
- bmh6@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Location
- St John's House
- Office hours
- By email appointment
Research areas
My research focusses on the long-term impact of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on German society and culture. The most distinctive element of my approach is the incorporation of visual evidence into the broader frameworks of religious history. My first monograph, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500-1648, drew on both textual and visual sources to analyse the significance of Marian piety during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. My second monograph, A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany, was published in 2017. It explains how and why Lutheranism—a confession that insisted upon the pre-eminence of God’s Word—became a visually magnificent faith, a faith whose adherents produced, during the eighteenth century, monuments as splendid as the Frauenkirche in Dresden. I spent 2017-18 as a visiting fellow at the Freie Universität in Berlin in order to work on my next major project, which focuses on religious life during and after the Thirty Years' War.
See also the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute
PhD supervision
- Christopher Davis
- John Sullivan
Selected publications
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The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500-1648
Heal, B. M., 2007, Cambridge University Press. 338 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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'Better Papist than Calvinist': Art and Identity in Later Lutheran Germany’
Heal, B. M., 2011, In: German History. 29, 4, p. 584-609Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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A magnificent faith: art and identity in Lutheran Germany
Heal, B., 10 Aug 2017, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 305 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Ein herrlicher Glaube: Kunst und religioese Identitaet in Regensburg und im luthersichen Deutschland im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert
Heal, B. M., 2018, Die Reichsstadt Regensburg und die Reformation im Heiligen Roemischen Reich. Rudolph, H. (ed.). Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, p. 211-232Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Reformatorische Bildwerke in der Kunst der Aufklärung
Heal, B. M., 30 Oct 2017, Das Bild der Reformation in der Aufklärung . Schäufele, W.-F. & Strohm, C. (eds.). Guetersloh: Guetersloher Verlag, p. 279-299 21 p. (Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte; vol. 218).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Lutheran baroque: the afterlife of a Reformation altarpiece
Heal, B. M., Apr 2017, In: Art History. 40, 2, p. 358-379Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Radicalism and dissent in the world of Protestant reform
Heal, B. M. (Editor) & Kremers, A. (Editor), 2017, Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht. 275 p. (V&R academic)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Visual and Material Culture
Heal, B. M., Dec 2016, The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations. Rublack, U. (ed.). Oxford University Press, p. 601-620Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Seeing Christ: Visual Piety in Saxony's Erzgebirge
Heal, B. M., 2014, Visual Acuity and the Arts of Communication in Early Modern Germany. Smith, J. C. (ed.). Ashgate, p. 43-59Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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“Zum Andenken und zur Ehre Gottes”: Kunst und Frömmigkeit im frühneuzeitlichen Luthertum
Heal, B. M., Dec 2013, In: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. 104, p. 185-210 26 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review