“Wherefore She Made Suit”: African Women’s Religious and Spiritual Determinism in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

Journal Title: Religions - Year 2017, Vol 8, Issue 11

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.

Authors and Affiliations

Tamara Lewis

Keywords

Related Articles

Translation, Cultural Adaptation of Spiritual Needs Questionnaire in Pakistan

The current study was conducted with the aim of translating, adapting, and exploring the factor structure of Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) in chronically ill patients. To meet this objective, the English-version...

Prophesying Women and Ruling Men: Women’s Religious Authority in North American Pentecostalism

The issue of religious authority is one of the main reasons why women have been allowed to participate in Pentecostal churches, and why they have been limited. Women are granted access to ministering authority, but not...

Empire, Nationalism and the Jewish Question: Victor Adler and Otto Bauer

This paper uses the life and thought of two important figures in the history of Austrian socialism—Victor Adler and Otto Bauer—as a prism through which to examine the complex relationship between German nationalism, th...

Trust at Work: A Study on Faith and Trust of Protestant Entrepreneurs in China

There is much talk about the trust crisis in China and the possible role of religion in rebuilding China’s moral order. This study is an attempt to examine religion’s impact on the emerging market economy in China, foc...

The Internal Consistency Reliability of the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism among Australian Jews

The Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism was developed initially to extend among the Hebrew-speaking Jewish community in Israel a growing body of international research concerned to map the correlates, anteced...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP25843
  • DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8110251
  • Views 301
  • Downloads 8

How To Cite

Tamara Lewis (2017). “Wherefore She Made Suit”: African Women’s Religious and Spiritual Determinism in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England. Religions, 8(11), -. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-25843