The authors in this volume analyze spiritual kinship in Europe from the end of the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age. Uniquely comparing Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox views and practices, the chapters look at changes in theological thought over time as well as in social customs related to spiritual kinship, including godparenthood.

List of Figures and Tables Contributors Spiritual Kinship and Godparenthood: an Introduction; G.Alfani  & V.Gourdon PART I: THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD Immigrants and Formalisation of Social Ties in Early Modern Italy; G.Alfani Ecclesiastical Godparenthood in Early Modern Murcia; A.Irigoyen Godparenthood and Social Networks in an Italian Rural Community: Nonantola, Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries; G.Alfani  & C.Munno Godparenthood and Social Relationships in France under the Old Regime: Lyons as a Case Study; E.Couriol PART II: GODPARENTHOOD FROM THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO THE AGE OF INDUSTRIALIZATION What's in a Name? Choosing Kin Godparents in Nineteenth Century Paris; V.Gourdon Spiritual Kinship, Political Mobilization and Social Cooperation: a Swiss Alpine valley in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; S.Guzzi PART III: REFORMED GODPARENTHOOD Kin, Neighbours or Prominent Persons? Godparenthood in a Finnish Rural Community in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century; K-M.Piilahti Who Wants to be a Godparent? Baptisms in a Lutheran Church in Paris, 1755-1804; T.Ericsson PART IV: EASTERN EUROPE AND EUROPEANS ABROAD Godparenthood in the Russian Orthodox Tradition: Custom against the Law; M.Muravyeva The French in Gold Rush San Francisco and Spiritual Kinship; A.Foucrier Notes Bibliography