Flesh and Spirit

"This anthology makes accessible to readers ten little-known and under-studied works by seventeenth-century women (edited from manuscript and print) that explore the relationship between spiritual and physical health in the period. Providing a detailed and engaging introduction to the issues confronted when studying women's writing from this century, the anthology also examines female interpretations of illness, exploring beliefs that toothache and miscarriage could be God's punishments, but also, paradoxically, that such terrible suffering could be understood as proof that a believer was eternally beloved. Many of the extracts in the anthology present illness as an important part of women's conversion, confirming their religious beliefs, but some women interpreted bodily dysfunction as the result of the Devil's temptations, in some cases leading them to practise starvation and attempt suicide."--Page 4 of cover.

Year

2014

Language

English

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Editions

1

Pages

272

ISBN

9780719090233

Data source: Wikidata