ABSTRACT
Patricia Crawford explores how the study of gender can enhance our understanding of religious history, in this study of women and their apprehensions of God in early modern England. The book has three broad themes: the role of women in the religious upheaval in the period from the Reformation to the Restoration; the significance of religion to contemporary women, focusing on the range of practices and beliefs; and the role of gender in the period. The author argues that religion in the early modern period cannot be understood without a perception of the gendered nature of its beliefs, institutions and language. Contemporary religious ideology reinforced women's inferior position, but, as the author shows, it was possible for some women to transcend these beliefs and profoundly influence history.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|51 pages
Religious Changes 1500–1640
part II|45 pages
Women's Religious Beliefs and Spirituality 1500–1720
part III|66 pages
Women and Radical Religion in the English Revolution 1640–60
part IV|29 pages
Restoration to Toleration 1660–1720