Metaphor, Cure and Conversion in Early Modern England

TY - JOUR

T1 - Metaphor, Cure and Conversion in Early Modern England

AU - Smith, Helen

PY - 2014/7

Y1 - 2014/7

N2 - One of the most prevalent metaphors for conversion in early modern England was the cure of a diseased soul. This article draws together religious controversy, medical manuals, and individual accounts of conversion to chart the variety of sources that inform this metaphor, from the practical experience of the sickbed to the typological traditions of biblical interpretation. It explores the varied language of spiritual sickness in order to reevaluate both the operations of religious feeling and recent accounts of metaphor as embodied, and suggests instead that conversionary cures open up the category of imagined sensation and the complex connections between bodily and spiritual feeling in this period.

AB - One of the most prevalent metaphors for conversion in early modern England was the cure of a diseased soul. This article draws together religious controversy, medical manuals, and individual accounts of conversion to chart the variety of sources that inform this metaphor, from the practical experience of the sickbed to the typological traditions of biblical interpretation. It explores the varied language of spiritual sickness in order to reevaluate both the operations of religious feeling and recent accounts of metaphor as embodied, and suggests instead that conversionary cures open up the category of imagined sensation and the complex connections between bodily and spiritual feeling in this period.

U2 - 10.1086/677408

DO - 10.1086/677408

M3 - Article

SN - 0034-4338

VL - 67

SP - 473

EP - 502

JO - Renaissance Quarterly

JF - Renaissance Quarterly

IS - 2

ER -