Introduction. On Women's Political Thought in the Early Modern Era. Religion, Authority and Individuality

The introduction articulates some of the conceptual questions that emerge in investigating women's political thought in early modernity, in Europe and beyond. Four aspects are particularly crucial: the nexus between politics and theology, in the light of the pervasiveness of religion in everyday life and women's intellectual elaboration; the relationship with political power, that women both criticize and legitimate; the challenge they pose to patriarchal authorities who claimed to hold the monopoly of the sacred; and women's entrance into the rising public sphere. Furthermore, the introduction shows the continuities and discontinuities between the Middle Ages and the early modern era with respect to women's political thought and suggests the necessity to rethink traditional periodizations which emphasize breaks more than the different faces of transition.