Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England

'With its ever-broadening awareness of writings by and about women, Catholics, radicals, Jews, and Muslims, criticism of early modern religious literature has become more and more ecumenical. But Michael Martin reminds us that one group of mystically-inclined writers - including eccentrics such as John Dee, Sir Kenelm Digby, Henry and Thomas Vaughan, Jane Lead, and even John Donne - remains sorely understudied and undervalued. Bolstered by penetrating insights from medieval and postmodern religious thinkers, Literature and the Encounter with God in Post-Reformation England is a sophisticated and informative study of these writers and of their diverse and determined attempts to approach an increasingly unapproachable God.' Gregory Kneidel, University of Connecticut, USA 'Martin's is a bold investigation ... [he] rescues figures from the margins, such as Lead and Dee, to demonstrate the ways in which early modern visions were manifested. The book constitutes a collection of case-studies demonstrating the vitality of religious experience in the seventeenth century. It also models for scholars new ways to discuss the role of religion in the late Renaissance.' Journal of the Northern Renaissance 'Martin's book ... is a readable and critically engaged consideration of the complexities of religious feeling for everyday people ... Martin's methodology introduces the importance of relinquishing a critical condescension towards religious conviction in order to consider it on its own terms ... [he] delivers a straightforward and comprehensive picture of an interesting variety of sources.' Seventeenth-Century News 'Martin's close readings are compelling, and his discussions are rich with insights on early modern orthodoxy, scientific inquiry, and the language of desire. ... this study provides a fresh reading of mysticism and religious affect in the early modern period, particularly in its generous attempt to account for figures, like the Vaughans and Lead, who have historically been marginalized in critical accounts.' Renaissance Quarterly