Description

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 era, 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.

The extracts in the anthology explore how illness was an important part of women�s religious conversion, often confirming religious belief, but also how women could advise others about their physical and spiritual health in manuscript and print. The anthology includes a thorough introduction to the period�s medical and religious beliefs, as well as an introduction to contemporary ideas about women�s physical and spiritual make up. Each of the ten extracts also has its own preface, highlighting relevant contexts and further reading, and is fully annotated.Typham this is the title: Flesh and Spirit An anthology of seventeenth-century women’s writing 1st Edition