TWO MODERNITIES OF EUROPE: RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE EARLY MODERN ERA THROUGH THE LENS OF S. EISENSTADT’S THEORY OF MULTIPLE MODERNITIES

Abstract

The article Two Modernities of Europe: Religious Transformations of the Early Modern Era through the Lens of S. Eisenstadt’s Theory of Multiple Modernities by Andriy Omelchenko analyzes the Reformation and Counter-Reformation as parallel and competing models of European modernization. Building on the theoretical framework of Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, the author questions the universalist conception of modernization as a linear process of Westernization. Instead, he interprets the European experience as an internal multiplicity of modernities, shaped by religious differentiation, institutional pluralism, and intellectual competition within the Western civilization itself.

The study combines the civilizational approach (Toynbee, Huntington) with classical sociological perspectives of Weber, Schumpeter, Habermas, and Gid-dens to trace how religious transformations served as catalysts for institu-tional rationalization and cultural innovation. The Reformation is shown as a movement that–though not originally modernizing–became a modernization mechanism when adopted by urban bourgeois milieus, leading to the secular-ization of education and knowledge. In contrast, the Counter-Reformation is interpreted as an alternative modernization project aimed at preserving Cath-olic legitimacy through administrative and educational reforms, particularly via the Jesuit school network.

The author argues that the confessional competition of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced a durable «hyperpluralism» (Gregory, Taylor), fostering public discourse and the differentiation of European institutions. The emergence of print culture and pamphleteering transformed theological debate into an instrument of public persuasion, thereby expanding the early modern public sphere. Ultimately, European modernization is portrayed not as a product of consensus but as an outcome of institutionalized conflict, intellectual diversity, and the coexistence of distinct yet interdependent re-ligious models that collectively shaped the foundations of Western modernity.