The Turn to Religion in Early Modern English Studies

Abstract

When the New Historicist scholar Stephen Greenblatt recently published a book on Purgatory as well as an essay and two book chapters on the Eucharist, (1) clearly something new was afoot in early modern English studies. Religion was once again at the center in interpretations of early modern culture. Not that religion had ever disappeared as a subject of inquiry in the field, for the prominence of such authors as Spenser, Donne, Herbert, and Milton and the religious politics of the Civil War era guaranteed that a large body of work continued to be produced dealing with religious subject matter, conflicts, and culture. (2) And, of course, the vexed question of Shakespeare's religion never stopped stimulating discussion inside or outside the academic world. Perhaps it is safer to say that interpretation of religious material and contexts never really ceased in early modern literary study but rather that they had just been pushed somewhat to the side by most New Historicists and cultural materialists, who pursued other topics and, when they dealt with religious issues, quickly translated them into social, economic, and political language. Typical of this era was the Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, a scholarly organization drawing participation mostly from scholars who began their careers in the 1980s and 1990s. In announcing its first conference in 1993, it defined itself in the following way: