ABSTRACT
Mary Wollstonecraft has long been regarded as a canonically secular liberal thinker. Her theology and religion have often been dismissed as mere rhetorical flourish, as eighteenth-century wallpaper used to adorn the edifice of her feminist arguments. In recent years, however, we have seen a revival of interest in her theological commitments and religious practices. This shift marks a much-needed development in Wollstonecraft studies for the fields of political theory, women and gender studies, and religious ethics. It challenges prevalent narratives in each—namely, that feminism and the defense of women’s rights was birthed in the milieu of a largely secular Enlightenment. And yet the question remains, what role do theology and religious practice play in her work? If not mere rhetorical flourish, is it, as some claim, that of foundations? This essay suggests another alternative. For Wollstonecraft, theology and religion may be best understood as garments of an inherited and ever-revisable wardrobe of the moral imagination. Indeed, she borrows Edmund Burke’s wardrobe metaphor in order to undermine his religious, political, and gendered taste. The wardrobe metaphor sheds light on her method, her moral psychology, the aesthetic content of her theological commitments, and their significance for her moral theology.
