Diseased Bodies and Divided Souls: The Role of Corporeality in Religious Conflict during the Reformation

Diseased Bodies, Defiled Souls: Corporality and Religious Difference during the Reformation

Charles H. Parker

The article explores the understanding of bodies among pastoral theologians and polemicists from the mid-sixteenth century to late seventeenth centuries within both Catholic and Protestant contexts. Both denominations employed bodily corruption as a metaphorical tool for promoting pious behavior and revealing religious discrepancies amidst intense sectarian conflicts.

This study coincides with a pivotal era in medical history when there was an extensive interest in anatomy, which coexisted uneasily with the traditional Galenic physiology concepts until it was supplanted by the mechanistic Cartesian perspective around the late sixteenth century. In this intellectual milieu, Catholic and Protestant pastoral writings predominantly used similar bodily aspects to symbolize sinfulness, whereas polemic texts drew significant distinctions concerning the impacts of religious disparity.

Catholic authors often characterized heretical bodies as sites of humoral contamination, while Calvinist theorists viewed idolatrous bodies as harbors for excessive sensuality. The article elucidates these dual perspectives and their implications on confessional identity formation during this period.

The Renssance Quarterly welcomes contributions that span a broad range of disciplines including literature, art history, musicology, and the cultural production across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and beyond from 1300 to 1700. It also explores the post-Renssance legacy in later periods.

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