Synopses & Reviews
Henigman provides evidence that laywomen made significant contributions to religious language and theology in the early 18th century through the process of dialogue. Exploring the interrelationship between elite and popular religious culture, she looks at a variety of women, including poet Colman Turell; Sarah Edwards, the wife of the prominent theologian; and a group of women whose voices are preserved because they were accused of killing their newborn babies.
Synopsis
By exploring the interrelationship between elite and popular religious culture in colonial New England, Coming Into Communion shows that laywomen made active significant contributions, through the process of dialogue, to religious language and theology in the early eighteenth century. Case studies examine a variety of women, including the poet Jane Colman Turell, Sarah Edwards (wife of the prominent theologian), and a group of women whose voices are preserved in history because they were accused of killing their newborn babies. Henigman tells the fascinating stories of their interchanges with their ministers to show that these women subtly revised the language of the clergy, choosing different scripture texts and images to describe a more intimate relationship with God and a holistic sense of community.