Private and domestic devotion - how early modern men and women practised their religion when they were not in church - is a vital and largely hidden subject. Here, historical, literary and theological scholars examine piety of conformist, non-conformist and Catholic early modern Christians, in a range of private and domestic settings, in both England and Scotland. The subjects under analysis include Bible-reading, the composition of prayers, the use of the psalms, the use of physical props for prayers, the pious interpretation of dreams, and the troubling question of what counted as religious solitude. The collection as a whole broadens and deepens our understanding of the patterns of early modern devotion, and of their meanings for early modern culture as a whole.
Jessica Martin is priest-in-charge of the Cambridgeshire parishes of Duxford, Hinxton and Ickleton, and a former Fellow in English at Trinity College, Cambridge. Alec Ryrie is Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University
Jessica Martin, Alec Ryrie, Ian Green, Jane E.A. Dawson, Erica Longfellow, Micheline White, Tara Hamling, Kate Narveson, Jeremy Schildt, Hannibal Hamlin, Beth Quitslund, Alison Shell.