{"product_id":"the-enthusiast-anatomy-of-the-fanatic-in-seventeenth-century-british-culture-9781501770807","title":"The Enthusiast: Anatomy of the Fanatic in Seventeenth-Century British Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Enthusiast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e tells the story of a character type that was developed in early modern Britain to discredit radical prophets during an era that witnessed the dismantling of the Church of England's traditional means for punishing heresy.\u003c\/b\u003e As William Cook Miller shows, the caricature of fanaticism here called the Enthusiast began as propaganda against religious dissenters, especially working-class upstarts, but was adopted by a range of writers as a literary vehicle for exploring profound problems of spirit, soul, and body and as a persona for the ironic expression of their own prophetic illuminations. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTaking shape through the public and private writings of some of the most insightful authors of seventeenth-century Britain--Henry More, John Locke, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Mary Astell, and Jonathan Swift, among others--the Enthusiast appeared in various guises and literary modes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy attending to this literary being and its animators, \u003ci\u003e The Enthusiast\u003c\/i\u003e establishes the figure of the fanatic as a bridge between the Reformation and the Enlightenment, showing how an incipient secular modernity was informed by not the rejection of religion but the transformation of the prophet into something sparkling, witty, ironic, and new.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWilliam Cook Miller is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Rochester. His work has appeared in the journals\u003ci\u003e New Literary History\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Studies in Philology\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50487430578450,"sku":"9781501770807","price":60.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a51a6697-ad19-4879-b168-3f8d35b5c4ad.jpg?v=1730440646","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-enthusiast-anatomy-of-the-fanatic-in-seventeenth-century-british-culture-9781501770807","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}