Sozioreligiöse Nähe ermitteln: Eine historische Netzwerkanalyse zur Verortung der pietistischen Gräfin Erdmuthe Benigna von Reuß-Ebersdorf (1670–1732)
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This study is situated at the intersection of historical network research, digital humanities, and the history of religion. It focus on Countess Erdmuthe Benigna of Reuss-Ebersdorf (1670–1732) as an actor within the Reussian Pietist milieu in the first half of the eighteenth century. Starting from the observation that the Reussian counties constituted a regional reflection of diverse forms of Pietist expression, the study aims to determine Erdmuthe Benigna’s position within this milieu not deductively through established categories such as Hallischer Pietismus, Herrnhuter Pietismus (Moravians), separatistischer or höfischer Pietismus, but inductively through her concrete relational practices.
To this end, the study combines qualitative and quantitative methods within an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach. First, based on metadata from 2,005 letter contacts among 265 individuals, the sociocentric Reussian Pietist network from 1696 to 1732 is reconstructed in order to reveal Erdmuthe Benigna’s structural position within this communicative framework and to trace the temporal development of group formations. Subsequently, an egocentric network is modeled on the basis of 95 letters written by Erdmuthe to Heinrich XXIV Reuss-Köstritz (1681–1748) and Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760) between 1711 and 1731. This ego network is derived from the social interactions articulated in the letters. Guiding the analysis is the heuristic concept of socio-religious closeness, which captures the interrelation of social and religious dimensions of relationships and operationalizes them through communicative, transactional, cognitive, and emotional interaction types.
At the macro level, the study demonstrates that Erdmuthe Benigna occupies a functionally central position within the Reussian Pietist correspondence network, particularly until the end of her regency in 1720. At the same time, it becomes evident that the initially dynamic group structures of the network increasingly consolidated along Halle and Herrnhut lines of communication during the 1720s. At the micro level, the ego network analysis reveals Erdmuthe Benigna as a boundary-crosser between different Pietist circles. Her relationships with Heinrich XXIV Reuss-Köstritz, Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, and other selected individuals shows varying degrees of socio-religious and religious closeness depending on the dimension of interaction. Moreover, the analysis indicates that intensive communication alone is not a sufficient indicator of religious closeness. Rather, the combination of different interaction types and the multiplexity of relationships prove to be particularly significant.
Beyond these historiographical findings, the study makes a methodological contribution to historical network research and digital Pietism studies. It develops a transparently documented, reproducible, customizable and transferable approach to the formal modeling of historical relational data and reflects on the limits of their quantifiability. In doing so, it demonstrates that formalization and context-sensitive historical interpretation can be productively combined to describe religious-historical interaction and relationship structures in a more differentiated manner and to empirically test existing research assumptions.
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Deutsches Historisches Institut Washington, D.C. (Max Weber Stfitung)
Franckesche Stiftungen Halle
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