Women and Religion in England: 1500-1720

Women and Religion in Englandargues that religion in the early modern period cannot be understood without a perception of the gendered nature of its beliefs, institutions, and language. The book focuses on women and their apprehensions of God during this time. Contemporary religious ideology reinforced the assumption that women were inferior to men, but Patricia Crawford illustrates that it was possible for some women to transcend these beliefs and profoundly influence history. Women and Religion in Englandis organized within three broad sections: the role of women in the religious upheaval of the Reformation, civil wars, and Commonwealth; the significance of religion to contemporary women and the range of their practices and beliefs; and the role of gender at this time. This wide-ranging synthesis incorporates the most recent scholarship on gender with Crawford's original research, opening up the question of gender and religion in the early modernperiod.