Women, Enlightenment and Catholicism

“his path-breaking book explores an original subject: female agency in Enlightenment

Catholicism. It shows how the Enlightenment, the history of women and gender, and
religious history – subjects which have oten been studied in isolation from one another
– can be combined to give new insights into the intellectual ferment that took place in
Women, Enlightenment
the eighteenth century. A team of international historians explores the ways in which
individual women in Europe responded to the need to reconcile Enlightenment ideas with
their Catholic faith.”
and Catholicism
Marisa Linton, Kingston University, UK
A T R A N SNAT IO NA L B IO G R A P H IC A L H I S T O RY
“While scholarship both on the Catholic Enlightenment and on women and gender in
the eighteenth century has lourished in recent years, the two have rarely been integrated
– until now. his lively set of essays from a irst-rate group of scholars depicts an array of Edited by Ulrich L Lehner
remarkable women whose intellectual pursuits deied conventional gender expectations,
provoking us to rethink the nature of Enlightenment Catholicism and female agency within
it. his is a trailblazing volume bound to captivate anyone interested in gender and religion
at the threshold of the modern world.”
Eric Carlsson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

Women, Enlightenment and Catholicism explores, for the irst time, the uncharted territory of
women’s religious Enlightenment. Each chapter ofers a biographical insight into the social
and cultural context of female Enlighteners and how Catholic women in Europe used the
thought and values of Enlightenment to articulate their beliefs about how to live their faith in
the world.

he collection of portraits within this book ofers a closer look into the new understanding
of womanhood that emerged from Enlightenment culture and was conceived independently
from marital relationships. hey also highlight the distinctive contributions that women
made to political and religious philosophy, spirituality and mysticism, and the eforts to bring
scientiic knowledge to the attention of other women.

Guiding readers through the complex religious, intellectual and global connections inluenced

Edited by Ulrich L Lehner

by the Enlightenment, Women, Enlightenment and Catholicism brings the achievements
of Enlightenment women to the foreground and restores them to their rightful place in
intellectual history. It is ideal reading for scholars and students of Enlightenment history, early
modern religion and early modern women’s history.

Ulrich L. Lehner is Professor of Religious History and Historical heology at Marquette

University. A member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, he has received awards
and fellowships from the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, the Notre Dame Institute
of Advanced Study, the Earhart Foundation, the German Humboldt Foundation and the Carl
Friedrich von Siemens Foundation. He is the award-winning author of several scholarly works
on early modern and modern history of religion.

HISTORY/ENLIGHTENMENT/RELIGION/WOMEN

Cover image: © Alamy

ISBN 978-1-138-68763-9

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