Pain, Pleasure and Perversity: Discourses of Suffering in Seventeenth-Century England

Luther's 95 Theses begin and end with the concept of suffering, and the question of why a benevolent God allows his creations to suffer remains one of the central issues of religious thought. In order to chart the processes by which discourse relating to pain and suffering became marginalized during the period from the Renaissance to the end of the seventeenth century, this book examines a number of books on the subject translated into English from (mainly) Spanish and Italian. Combining elements of theology, literature and history, this book provides a fascinating perspective on one of the key conundrums of early modern religious history.