Plagues of the heart

Crisis and covenanting in a seventeenth-century Scottish town

By: Michelle D. Brock

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Hardcover | 29 October 2024

At a Glance

Hardcover
216 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.5

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$214.49

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Using a wide range of archival material and a microhistorical approach, Plagues of the heart explores the formation, practice and performance of protestant identity amid the interlocking crises of the seventeenth century. Taking the southwestern port city of Ayr as a remarkable but revealing case study, this book argues that under the stewardship of a generation of radical clergy, Scotland developed a distinct and durable 'culture of covenanting'. This culture was created not simply by swearing the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, but through reimagining the post-Reformation program of discipline and worship around hard-line interpretations of those covenants. This compelling story of one Scottish town and its long-serving minister offers a fresh understanding of how protestant communities across the early modern world grappled with religion and identity during a remarkably tumultuous age.

Industry Reviews

'This is a good book, written by an historian whose skill with her sources brings her subjects to life... the fascination of Brock's rich study is seeing something of how and why a medium-sized town in a small country on Europe's northerly margins should have become one of the places where the "culture of covenanting" proved so distinctive and enduring.'
Laura A.M. Stewart, Journal of Religious History

'Michelle D. Brock's Plagues of the Heart is a lively and well-written study of religion and society in mid-seventeenth-century Ayr. Most academic historians of the covenanting revolution and the Restoration have attempted to tell a national story. Brock emulates the best features of each mode of historical writing, asking questions of broad importance about the impact of the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, while constructing her analysis primarily from the records of a single, medium-sized royal burgh... The book can be highly recommended to all scholars of seventeenth-century Scotland.'
Alasdair Raffe, Scottish Historical Review

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