Bible Readers and Lay Writers in Early Modern England

Analysing print and manuscript sources from 1580 to 1660 this volume studies how lay immersion in the Bible gave rise to a non-professional writing culture. Narveson examines the development of that culture looking at the close connection between reading and writing practices the influence of gender and the emergence of writing as a key practice of lay devotion. She also explores the attendant clerical anxiety as layfolk assumed control of their spiritual self-definition.