In early modern Christian thought, bodies blended material and immaterial qualities. The flux of Galenic humours conditioned ways of thinking and feeling, and early modern scholars offered comprehensive advice about the maladies engendered by humoral excesses or deficits. But humoral balance was not explicable in straightforward biological terms; it depended on wider environmental factors, and could be influenced by occult forces. Human bodies were also governed by souls.

This workshop seeks to facilitate a conversation about early modern spirituality and corporeality. How did Christian theologians, philosophers and physicians understand the body, and how did medical or ministerial practice respond to humans’ multifaceted nature?

The workshop will also discuss historiography. In recent years there has been a proliferation of work on religion and the body, but there remain methodological challenges. How to conceptualise the relationship between belief and practice, or language and experience, remains a thorny theoretical problem for both social and cultural historians.

We envisage that the workshop will offer a relaxed setting for discussion and debate, and welcome informal papers and work in progress.