ABSTRACT
Religion explained the basics of cosmology and society. Belief systems influence social relations even today, and in the medieval and early modern eras, religious ideas shaped some of the most important secular institutions as well as the overall social theory. This book has two themes that are investigated from the late medieval period (the 14th century) to the early modern period (until the 18th century). These themes are religion (or faith) and gender, both of which are understood in a specific way, as lived and experienced. Pre-modern histories and ‘lived religion’ history, and perhaps ‘lived histories’ in general, suggest that to acquire a more accurate and sensitive understanding of the connection between religion and gender, gender needs to be approached as an open question rather than as a category. The Renaissance and the Reformation are among the crucial thresholds of the shift from the medieval to the early modern.
