The Reformation of the Heart: Gender and Radical Theology in the English Revolution

The Reformation of the Heart: Gender and Radical Theology in the English Revolution offers fresh insight into the relationship between radical theology and gender radicalism in the English Revolution. It addresses together two themes which have long fascinated historians of the period: the intellectual formation of religious radicalism, and the prominence of women as prophets and preachers in radical sects. Sarah Apetrei explores the remarkable ideas and reforming visions of a levelling and highly mystical network in the period of civil conflict, the regicide, and its aftermath--a network which linked military chaplains with inspired women and congregations across England.

Drawing on both printed works and previously unexamined manuscript evidence, Apetrei discovers that revolutionary radicals were both more theologically daring, and more unified in their support for women’s participation, than we have hitherto thought. On one side, the army chaplains and radical preachers developed a highly original theology of gender, conceiving of a female principle in the Godhead. They were also explicit advocates of women’s preaching to an extent previously unacknowledged. Concomitantly, women’s involvement in preaching and publishing during this period of crisis fostered innovative thinking. In a climate in which Reformed teachings about the limits of election were being reasserted, women were pioneers in teaching the doctrine of universal salvation or ’general redemption’.

Female theologians and visionaries also played a prominent part in the dissemination of ideas, drawn from European radical reformations and condemned by the magisterial churches, about the ’heavenly flesh’ of Christ and its appearance in the bodies of the saints in the last days. They used highly feminized, maternal imagery to discuss Christ. As such, this book also contributes to feminist epistemology. It shows how, as a group with distinctive experiences, priorities, and cultural identities, the involvement of women in religious reform and the conception of ideas can be truly transformative.

Sarah Apetrei, Director of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford

Sarah Apetrei is Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Theology and Religion. Since 2011, she has taught, lectured, and supervised at Oxford in the area of early modern religious history. Her research focuses on early modern mysticism and the relationship between visionary religion and reforming ideas about gender relations. She has published widely on early modern women’s religious writing, debates about sexuality and celibacy, mystical theology and its reception, and visionary radicalism in seventeenth-century Britain.