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Facing Childhood Death in English Protestant Spirituality

Ryrie, Alec

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Authors



Contributors

Katie Barclay
Editor

Ciara Rawnsley
Editor

Kimberley Reynolds
Editor

Abstract

This chapter examines seventeenth-century English Puritan discussions of childhood death, notably those of Nehemiah Wallington and James Janeway, in order to argue that Puritan and Calvinist theology offered important resources to parents and children facing childhood death. Examining how deaths were confronted and were used pedagogically demonstrates how effectively Puritanism, especially the doctrine of predestination, could be used both to console grief and to train and discipline the young. The chapter also examines how Puritan parents of sick children used their religion to manage their fear and distress, from sometimes manipulative attempts to use prayer to change the outcome of an illness, to the struggle which parents and children shared to find assurance and spiritual solace in and despite physical suffering and impending death.

Citation

Ryrie, A. (2017). Facing Childhood Death in English Protestant Spirituality. In K. Barclay, C. Rawnsley, & K. Reynolds (Eds.), Death, emotion and childhood in premodern Europe (109-127). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57199-1_6

Online Publication Date Feb 7, 2017
Publication Date Feb 7, 2017
Deposit Date May 3, 2017
Publicly Available Date Feb 7, 2020
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Pages 109-127
Series Title Palgrave studies in the history of childhood
Book Title Death, emotion and childhood in premodern Europe.
Chapter Number 6
ISBN 9781137571984
DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57199-1_6

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Copyright Statement
Alec Ryrie, Facing Childhood Death in English Protestant Spirituality / Death, Emotion and Childhood in Premodern Europe, 2016, Palgrave Macmillan reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57199-1_6




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