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. Unlike many previous studies of seventeenth-century women's writing, this anthology considers both their religious and medical contexts, demonstrating the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to studying these works.The ten extracts are divided into three sections enabling readers to consider works together that have a similar subject and purpose. The first section considers the relationship between conversion and health; the second, the various ways women could advise others about their physical and spiritual health; and the third, women's works that explore extreme melancholy. The anthology also 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.