The term confessionalism is commonly treated as roughly synonymous with confessionalization (“Age of Confessionalism” for the Confessional Age or the Era of Confessionalization), usually with negative connotations; it serves to denote modes of behavior and attitudes that champion confessional positions, claiming their contemporary validity to a degree felt to be improper, anachronistic, or ecumenically unacceptable. The German term Konfessionalismus wa…