The essays contained in this volume examine the particular religious experiences of women within a remarkably vibrant and formative era in British religious history. Scholars from the disciplines of history, literary studies and theology assess women's contributions to renewal, change, and reform; and consider the ways in which women negotiated institutional and intellectual boundaries. The volume re-focuses scholarly approaches to the history of gender and the history of feminism by setting the British writers often characterised as 'early feminists' in their theological and spiritual traditions.

Chapter 1 Introduction, Sarah Apetrei, Hannah Smith; Chapter 2 Women, Marriage and Agency in Restoration Dissent, Alison Searle; Chapter 3 Masculine Virgins:, Sarah Apetrei; Chapter 4 Female Authority and Lay Activism in Scottish Presbyterianism, 1660-1740, Alasdair Raffe; Chapter 5 'When God shall Restore them to their Kingdoms':, Claire Walker; Chapter 6 A Latitudinarian Queen:, Melinda Zook; Chapter 7 Religion and Sociability in the Correspondence of Damaris Masham (1658-1708), Sarah Hutton; Chapter 8 Slander, Conversation and the Making of the Christian Public Sphere in Mary Astell's A Serious Proposal to the Ladies and The Christian Religion as Profess'd by a Daughter of the Church of England, William Kolbrener; Chapter 9 Susanna Centlivre, 'Our Church's Safety' and 'Whig Feminism', Hannah Smith; Chapter 10 The Life and Works of Catherine Talbot (1721-70):, Emma Major;