Religion and the Senses in Early Modern Europe

Sensation is the subject of a new, burgeoning field in the humanities. This volume examines its role in the religious transformations of early modern Europe. Sensation was not only central to the doctrinal disputes of the Reformation, but also critical in shaping new or reformed religious practices, thus differentiating the relations to the sacred in a fractured Christian world. In seventeen interdisciplinary contributions the book explores the intersections between religious experiences, on the one hand, and artistic, musical, literary, dietary and olfactory practices, on the other. Deployed in variable, often contested ways, the senses were essential pathways to the sacred. They articulated knowledge of the divine, triggered strong affective responses, served to discipline body and soul, and shaped sacred environments.