The "World Theater" develops as an "absolute metaphor" (Hans Blumenberg) as soon as theater itself emerges as an institution, and its influence continues to this day. It has been used to support diametrically opposed viewpoints: as theatrum mundi, it can refer to both societal and cosmic order; and the metaphor can be employed to either obscure or emphasize the tension between these two. This anthology addresses the questions: What gives this figure its persuasive power? How has it manifested in various texts (specifically from the Early Modern period)? And what has survived from it?.