Preacher-Poets

Preacher-Poets demonstrates that early modern sermons had a larger impact on early modern literary texts and culture than previously assumed, analyzing the role of gender in theological and non-theological texts. This book argues that the sermon genre was a critical force in early modern culture by illuminating its role in shaping literary texts and examining the role of gender in order to connect sermons to the broader early modern cultural discourse.

This project analyzes the works of canonical “preacher-poets” such as George Herbert, John Donne, and John Bunyan, alongside the devotional writings of less-studied women, including Anna Walker, Katherine Austen, Margaret Hoby, and Mary Rich. Importantly, the sermon genre also offers insights into the textual contributions of women in early modern England. Women’s sermon notes and devotional writings often replicated the sermon genre’s features, challenging assumptions that Protestant theology uniformly perpetuated patriarchal norms. Rather, sermons provided a framework within which women engaged actively with Protestantism. This book also further situates sermons within the broader performative landscape by connecting them to the works of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare, revealing the sermon genre’s cultural impact in seventeenth-century England.

While the early modern sermon has gained some traction in literary studies, it has yet to be discussed at length as a major influence on early modern literature and culture. This book should be of interest to scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students of early modern literature, history, theology, and gender studies.