Radical Religious Communities

The twenty-first century has demonstrated that radicalism remains a vital analytical concept in the study of modern religion and politics. However, its application to earlier periods has been met with more ambivalence. This volume challenges that trend by examining religio-political subversives near the close of the Middle Ages as radical within their historical and intellectual contexts, spanning several centuries and cultures, with a focus on Central Europe. In doing so, it seeks to bridge entrenched geographical, chronological, and methodological divides, fostering broader discussions on the comparative relevance of radicalism in pre-modernity.

Pavlína Cermanová, Ph.D. (2010), Charles University, is a researcher at the Centre for Medieval Studies, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academyof Sciences. She has published on medieval apocalyptic thought, prophetic literature, and religious radicalism in Central Europe.Martin Pjecha, Ph.D. (2022), Central European University, is a researcher and project-member at the Centre for Medieval Studies, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences. He has published on Hussites radicalism, apocalypticism, and heterodox thought, including the monograph Theo-politics of the Hussite movement: from Reform to Revolution (Brill, 2024).Pavel Soukup, Ph.D. (2007) Charles University in Prague, is a researcher at the Centre for Medieval Studies, Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences. He has published on late medieval religion, culture, and heresy in Central Europe, including a biography of Jan Hus (Purdue University Press, 2020).