Bible Readers and Lay Writers in Early Modern England: Gender and Self-Definition in an Emergent Writing Culture

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.