Invisible Worlds: Death, Religion And The Supernatural In England, 1500-1700
About this ebook
- This history of the Church from the 15th to the 18th centuries is explored with insight and inquisition
- Starting with the aftermath of the Reformation, this book is a must for knowing the Church's roots
After a historiographical and interpretative introduction, the book falls into two parts, both referencing the 'Invisible Worlds' of the title, and representing different angles of vision on aspects of early modern belief that today seem particularly strange and disturbing, even to believing Christians.
The first five chapters consider the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Reformation's assault on established beliefs about the afterlife, and the experience of souls there. They show how debates about the existence of purgatory, and related matters such as the nature of hell-fire, acted as unwitting agents of modernization, but also provided scope for ordinary people to practise a kind of vernacular theology.
The second part looks at deeply-held beliefs around angels, ghosts and fairies, and how these were re-appropriated and reimagined when cut from their traditional theological moorings.
About the author
Peter Marshall is Professor of History at the University of Warwick and co-editor of The English Historical Review. He has published widely on many aspects of the religious culture of early modern Europe, particularly in the British Isles, and his books include Mother Leakey and the Bishop: A Ghost Story (2007), The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction (2009) and Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation (2017).
