Tactile Piety: Devotional Objects, Underground Catholicism, and the Reformation of Touch in Early Modern England
This article explores how the religious upheavals of the early modern era re-embodied belief and reshaped bodily practices by examining two types of devotional object that bring the intrinsic tactility of late medieval and early modern Catholic piety into sharp focus: reliquary pendants and decade r...
| Subtitles: | Bodily Practices and the European Reformations |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
|
| In: |
Reformation
Year: 2025, Volume: 30, Issue: 2, Pages: 224-249 |
| Further subjects: | B
Senses
B Devotional objects B Catholicism B Touch B Body |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article explores how the religious upheavals of the early modern era re-embodied belief and reshaped bodily practices by examining two types of devotional object that bring the intrinsic tactility of late medieval and early modern Catholic piety into sharp focus: reliquary pendants and decade rings. Such items facilitate an investigation of the social and cultural history of the senses, especially touch, in the wake of the Protestant and Counter Reformations. They demonstrate how the body was used as a devotional instrument and the ways in which sensory experiences became tools for sustaining faith and fashioning religious identity in a context in which Catholicism was reduced to an underground church and a beleaguered community of believers. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1752-0738 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Reformation
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13574175.2025.2560459 |
