Abstract
Historical evidence of early modern English religious communities demonstrate that culturally negative perceptions of skin color and ethnicity contributed to theological notions of black inferiority which supported societal hierarchies based on racial and gender discrimination. This essay analyzes three accounts of a group typically ignored by religious scholars on early modern England: sixteenth and seventeenth century African women. Despite living in a period that arguably witnessed the ideological birth and development of the racial construct in tandem with British colonialist and imperialist expansionism, these women defiantly crafted their own brand of spiritual determinism to wield personal agency in the face of racist theological discourse, ecclesiastical institutions, and legal authorities.
Highlights
Literature ReviewThis essay implicitly critiques Coffey’s conclusions, by arguing that despite the rhetoric of liberation gleaned from Protestant readings of biblical narratives, the legacy of theological rhetoric birthed during the Reformation excluded Africans from the theme of deliverance
Historical evidence of early modern English religious communities demonstrate that culturally negative perceptions of skin color and ethnicity contributed to theological notions of black inferiority which supported societal hierarchies based on racial and gender discrimination
It can be deduced that African women exercised religious agency through their interaction with ecclesiastical institutions, faith communities, and political structures
Summary
This essay implicitly critiques Coffey’s conclusions, by arguing that despite the rhetoric of liberation gleaned from Protestant readings of biblical narratives, the legacy of theological rhetoric birthed during the Reformation excluded Africans from the theme of deliverance. Focus on the ways that African women were affected by practical interpretations of the bible during this period widens the scope of different groups studied. This assessment is relevant with regards to Patricia Crawford’s breakthrough text Women and Religion in England: 1500–1720 (1996) which explores English women’s experience of the Reformation (Crawford 1996)
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