University Directory

Christopher W. Close, PhD

Professor of History

Christopher Close PhD

Department

Department of History
Justice and Ethics in Law Program

Office

Barbelin 112H2

Phone

610-660-1797
Contact

Dr. Close came to Saint Joseph's University in fall 2012. His research focuses on the history of early modern Europe with a special interest in the intersection of religion and politics in European society from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. His first monograph, The Negotiated Reformation: Imperial Cities and the Politics of Urban Reform (1525-1550) (Cambridge University Press, 2009), examines how networks of support and communication between cities enabled the Protestant Reformation to spread in southern Germany. His second book, State Formation and Shared Sovereignty: The Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, 1488-1696 (Cambridge University Press, 2021) reevaluates traditional models of state formation by analyzing the operation of alliances in the Holy Roman Empire and the Low Countries during the early modern period. Dr. Close's articles have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Central European History, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Archive for Reformation History, European History Quarterly, and German History. He is currently Subject Editor for Religion for Routledge Resources Online - The Renaissance World.

    • BA, University of Iowa
    • PhD, University of Pennsylvania

  • Books

    • State Formation and Shared Sovereignty: The Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, 1488-1696. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2021; Paperback 2024.
    • The Negotiated Reformation: Imperial Cities and the Politics of Urban Reform, 1525-1550. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009; Paperback, 2018.

    Articles

    • “The Stages of Historical Analysis.” In The Pocket Instructor: Writing. Ed. Keith Shaw and Amanda Irwin Wilkins (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024), 200-204.
    • “Cities, Princes, and the Politics of Alliance in the Early Modern Empire.” In Patterns in the History of Polycentric Governance in European Cities: From Antiquity to the 21st Century. Ed. Thomas Lau et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2024), 189-203.
    • “Alliances and Sovereignty in European History.” FifteenEightyFour (blog). February
    • 19, 2021. http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2021/02/alliances-and-sovereignty-in-european-history/?preview=true&_thumbnail_id=37338
    • “Politics under the Guild Regime.” In A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Augsburg. Eds. Mark Häberlein and B. Ann Tlusty (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 123-145.
    • “The Imperial Diet in the 1520s.” In Martin Luther in Context. Ed. David Whitford (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 127-134.
    • “City-States, Princely States, and Warfare: Corporate Alliance and State Formation in the Holy Roman Empire (1540-1610).” European History Quarterly 47, 2 (2017): 205-228.
    • “Reawakening the ‘Old Evangelical Zeal’: The 1617 Reformation Jubilee and Collective Memory in Strasbourg and Ulm.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 48, 2 (Summer 2017): 299-321.
    • “The Diet of Worms and the Holy Roman Empire.” In Martin Luther: A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517-2017). Ed. Alberto Melloni, vol. 1 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017), 313-326.
    • “Der Reichstag zu Worms und das Heilige Römische Reich.” In Martin Luther. Ein Christ zwischen Reformen und Moderne (1517-2017). Ed. Alberto Melloni, vol. 1 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017), 327-342.
    • "La dieta di Worms e il Sacro Romano Impero." In Lutero. Un cristiano e la sua eredita 1517-2017. Ed. Alberto Melloni, vol. 1 (Bologna: Mulino, 2017), 253-266.
    • “Urban Magistrates, Religious Reform, and the Politics of Alliance in the Low Countries and Southern Germany.” In Entfaltung und zeitgenössische Wirkung der Reformation im europäischen Kontext. Eds. Irene Dingel and Ute Lotz-Heumann (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2015), 154-72.
    • “Regional History and the Comparative Turn in the Study of Early Modern German Cities.” German History 32, 1 (2014): 112-29.
    • “Estate Solidarity and Empire: Charles V’s Failed Attempt to Revive the Swabian League.” Archive for Reformation History 104 (2013): 134-57.
    • “’One does not live by bread alone’: Rural Reform and Village Political Strategies after the Peasants’ War.” Church History 79, 3 (September 2010): 556-84.
    • “Zurich, Augsburg, and the Transfer of Preachers during the Schmalkaldic War.” Central European History 42 (December 2009): 595-619.
    • “The Mindelaltheim Affair: High Justice, ius reformandi, and the Rural Reformation in Eastern Swabia (1542-1546).” The Sixteenth Century Journal 38, 2 (Summer 2007): 371-92.
    • Teaching Innovation Grant, 2024, Saint Joseph's University
    • Faculty Merit Award for Research, 2022, Saint Joseph's University
    • Summer Research Grant, 2020, Saint Joseph's University
    • Re-invitation Scholarly Research Grant, 2019, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
    • Michael J. Morris Grant for Scholarly Research, 2017-2018, Saint Joseph's University
    • Faculty Merit Award for Teaching, 2017, Saint Joseph's University
    • Franklin Research Grant, 2014, American Philosophical Society
    • Summer Research Grant, 2014, Saint Joseph’s University
    • Curriculum Development Grant, 2013, Saint Joseph’s University