Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith

"Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith" includes essays from diverse disciplinary perspectives to consider the full range of Astell's political, theological, philosophical, and poetic writings. The volume does not eschew the more traditional scholarly interest in Astell's concerns about gender; rather, it reveals how Astell's works require attention not only for their role in the development of early modern feminism, but also for their interventions on subjects ranging from political authority to individual agency, from political eros to divine service, from civil war historiography to Lockean epistemology. Given the vast breadth of her writings, her active role within early modern political and theological debates, and the sophisticated complexity of her prose, Astell has few parallels among her contemporaries. "Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith" bestows upon Astell the attention which she deserves not merely as a proto-feminist, but as a major figure of the early modern period.