Kate Narveson is Associate Professor of English, Luther College, USA

'... a really tremendous piece of scholarship: subtle, humane, insightful and - when it needs to be - biting.' Alec Ryrie, Durham University, UK 'Narveson's book is an energetic blend of different disciplines, tackling literature, religious history, book history and gender studies all at once, with remarkable nerve and considerable subtlety... There is a delicate and illuminating account of women's writing here; there is also new understanding of how early modern texts might be read.' Times Higher Education 'I found this book highly thought provoking. Ultimately it engages with a persistent and perplexing critical paradox: how do twenty-first-century scholars attempt to ’locate the marks of gender’ (132) within a set of early modern texts whose overriding objective is to erase any sense of self?' Renaissance Quarterly '... this is a sophisticated and engagingly lively discussion that ranges impressively through the primary and critical sources involved - perhaps more so than Narveson recognizes herself.' Seventeenth-Century News 'With sensitivity for the complexities of both lived religious experience and the intersections of popular and academic cultures, Nerveson shows that unpublished devotionals are far from uninteresting. This volume offers much to the study of early modern religion, whether in England or elsewhere. It deserves to be widely read.' Sixteenth Century Journal ’...provides a carefully considered analysis of lay devotional writing and the authors, particularly the women, who shaped and were shaped by it... Naverson [has] a keen eye for significant detail that she combines with breadth of research and sober judgment...’ John Donne Journal '... an excellent addition to this burgeoning field of study. ...Bible Readers and Lay Writers in Early Modern England has many impressive strengths.' Modern Philology 'With a sure hand, Kate Narveson surveys the whole circuit of reading and writing strategies surrounding Scripture literacy amon

• Chapter 1 IntroductionRecovering Lay Writing in Divinity; Part 1 From Reading Skills to Writing Practices; Chapter 1a Reading the Bible: Clerical Prescriptions and Lay Reading Practices; Chapter 2 The Emergence of Lay Composition; Chapter 3 Application to the Self: Reading and the Restructuring of Identity; Chapter 4 Recording Identity: Scripturalist Devotion among Ordinary Layfolk; Part 2 The Registration of Gender; Chapter 5 Discursive Horizons and the Question of Gender; Chapter 6 The Devotional Page and the Schoolroom of Print; Chapter 7 Grace Mildmay's Meditations: Love Letters from God and Their Scriptural Authorization; Chapter 8 ConclusionLay Scriptural Devotion Stakes Its Claim;

Kate Narveson is Associate Professor of English, Luther College, USA

'... a really tremendous piece of scholarship: subtle, humane, insightful and - when it needs to be - biting.' Alec Ryrie, Durham University, UK 'Narveson's book is an energetic blend of different disciplines, tackling literature, religious history, book history and gender studies all at once, with remarkable nerve and considerable subtlety... There is a delicate and illuminating account of women's writing here; there is also new understanding of how early modern texts might be read.' Times Higher Education 'I found this book highly thought provoking. Ultimately it engages with a persistent and perplexing critical paradox: how do twenty-first-century scholars attempt to ’locate the marks of gender’ (132) within a set of early modern texts whose overriding objective is to erase any sense of self?' Renaissance Quarterly '... this is a sophisticated and engagingly lively discussion that ranges impressively through the primary and critical sources involved - perhaps more so than Narveson recognizes herself.' Seventeenth-Century News 'With sensitivity for the complexities of both lived religious experience and the intersections of popular and academic cultures, Nerveson shows that unpublished devotionals are far from uninteresting. This volume offers much to the study of early modern religion, whether in England or elsewhere. It deserves to be widely read.' Sixteenth Century Journal ’...provides a carefully considered analysis of lay devotional writing and the authors, particularly the women, who shaped and were shaped by it... Naverson [has] a keen eye for significant detail that she combines with breadth of research and sober judgment...’ John Donne Journal '... an excellent addition to this burgeoning field of study. ...Bible Readers and Lay Writers in Early Modern England has many impressive strengths.' Modern Philology 'With a sure hand, Kate Narveson surveys the whole circuit of reading and writing strategies surrounding Scripture literacy amon

• Chapter 1 IntroductionRecovering Lay Writing in Divinity; Part 1 From Reading Skills to Writing Practices; Chapter 1a Reading the Bible: Clerical Prescriptions and Lay Reading Practices; Chapter 2 The Emergence of Lay Composition; Chapter 3 Application to the Self: Reading and the Restructuring of Identity; Chapter 4 Recording Identity: Scripturalist Devotion among Ordinary Layfolk; Part 2 The Registration of Gender; Chapter 5 Discursive Horizons and the Question of Gender; Chapter 6 The Devotional Page and the Schoolroom of Print; Chapter 7 Grace Mildmay's Meditations: Love Letters from God and Their Scriptural Authorization; Chapter 8 ConclusionLay Scriptural Devotion Stakes Its Claim;

Kate Narveson is Associate Professor of English, Luther College, USA

'... a really tremendous piece of scholarship: subtle, humane, insightful and - when it needs to be - biting.' Alec Ryrie, Durham University, UK 'Narveson's book is an energetic blend of different disciplines, tackling literature, religious history, book history and gender studies all at once, with remarkable nerve and considerable subtlety... There is a delicate and illuminating account of women's writing here; there is also new understanding of how early modern texts might be read.' Times Higher Education 'I found this book highly thought provoking. Ultimately it engages with a persistent and perplexing critical paradox: how do twenty-first-century scholars attempt to ’locate the marks of gender’ (132) within a set of early modern texts whose overriding objective is to erase any sense of self?' Renaissance Quarterly '... this is a sophisticated and engagingly lively discussion that ranges impressively through the primary and critical sources involved - perhaps more so than Narveson recognizes herself.' Seventeenth-Century News 'With sensitivity for the complexities of both lived religious experience and the intersections of popular and academic cultures, Nerveson shows that unpublished devotionals are far from uninteresting. This volume offers much to the study of early modern religion, whether in England or elsewhere. It deserves to be widely read.' Sixteenth Century Journal ’...provides a carefully considered analysis of lay devotional writing and the authors, particularly the women, who shaped and were shaped by it... Naverson [has] a keen eye for significant detail that she combines with breadth of research and sober judgment...’ John Donne Journal '... an excellent addition to this burgeoning field of study. ...Bible Readers and Lay Writers in Early Modern England has many impressive strengths.' Modern Philology 'With a sure hand, Kate Narveson surveys the whole circuit of reading and writing strategies surrounding Scripture literacy amon

• Chapter 1 IntroductionRecovering Lay Writing in Divinity; Part 1 From Reading Skills to Writing Practices; Chapter 1a Reading the Bible: Clerical Prescriptions and Lay Reading Practices; Chapter 2 The Emergence of Lay Composition; Chapter 3 Application to the Self: Reading and the Restructuring of Identity; Chapter 4 Recording Identity: Scripturalist Devotion among Ordinary Layfolk; Part 2 The Registration of Gender; Chapter 5 Discursive Horizons and the Question of Gender; Chapter 6 The Devotional Page and the Schoolroom of Print; Chapter 7 Grace Mildmay's Meditations: Love Letters from God and Their Scriptural Authorization; Chapter 8 ConclusionLay Scriptural Devotion Stakes Its Claim;