Lexicons of English Religion, 1380–1850

Harnessing corpus techniques and historical pragmatics, this book offers new insights into the history of English religious vocabulary.

Harnessing corpus techniques and historical pragmatics, this book explores the keywords that dominated English religious expression from the medieval period to the eve of the Darwinian age. It offers new insights into theolinguistics, making it relevant for both English historical linguists and historians of English Christianity.Religious texts played a central role in the historical development of English. Harnessing corpus linguistic techniques, historical pragmatics, and the history of the English church, this book interrogates the keywords that have dominated English religious expression from the end of the medieval period to the eve of the Darwinian age. Exploring a number of historical religious works from the late medieval period to the nineteenth century, it shows how changes in the deployment of key words reflected their evolving socio-cultural functions, and how their usage subsequently moved beyond religious texts to shape contemporary literary and political works. It includes numerous case-studies involving prophetic women, pamphleteers, preachers and philosophers, alongside prominent theologians, literary authors and other well-known figures. Offering new insights into the growing cross-disciplinary enterprise of theolinguistics in an engaging and accessible way, this study is essential reading for both English historical linguists and historians of English Christianity.