The emotional body in religious belief and practice

The body is a central feature of the most recent history of emotions scholarship, ¹ but its relation to religion and premodern emotion developed in a burgeoning of research in this area during the first decade of this century. ² The present chapter addresses further work over the last ten years in the history of emotions of the body and religion in Europe, 1100–1700. A few areas of focus emerge, situated mainly around religious belief and practice. I first discuss work on religious belief and identity across the period, including embodied emotions of body–soul theology and teaching on Christ’s and the believer’s body. I move next to religious practice, from medieval mysticism to its echoes in embodied spiritual practices following the Protestant and Catholic Reformations – here we see issues of continuity and change in premodern Europe foregrounded. I focus then on studies that examine bodily signs of religious engagement with emotions, especially weeping and facial expression. Finally, I review new research on emotions and materiality that takes up premodern religion and the body.