Treacherous Faith
The Specter of Heresy in Early Modern English Literature and Culture
David Loewenstein
Reviews and Awards
A 2015 Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year
"Loewenstein is to be commended for ranging boldly across the whole period from the 1520s to the 1660s, and being impressively surefooted in the process... The book achieves its twin goals of illuminating the past and speaking to the present." -- John Coffey, The Seventeenth Century.
"...[A] major study by a leading scholar of religious radicalism in early modern England. ... Treacherous Faith is rich with historical detail and...highly readable." --Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
"Treacherous Faith is an ambitious, scholarly and compelling survey of the fear of heresy and blasphemy across two centuries. It provides shocking evidence of the effects of that fear on the rhetoric and actions of both Catholics and Protestants. Yet does so from a modern liberal standpoint." --Gerard Kilroy, The Times Literary Supplement
"Throughout Treacherous Faith Loewenstein marshals his wealth of sources admirably, and he has successfully balanced readings of individual authors which will interest author specialists with a more general cultural, political, and religious narrative which illuminates the intricate debates prevalent throughout this tumultuous period in English history." -- Journal of the Northern Renaissance
"In this learned, erudite, and comprehensive study, David Loewenstein shows how fears of heresy haunted early modern England, a specter aroused by the Reformation's seismic upheavals. ... [An] excellent book...." --Renaissance Quarterly