Lady Church in the Christian Imagination: From Early Christianity to Modernity

How did Lady Church become a theological person and literary figure in patristic, medieval, and early modern texts? In this study, Lora Walsh recovers a feminine figure whose historical prominence has been overlooked. She traces the development of Lady Church in medieval and early modern England, providing new information and interpretations of works by well-known authors, including John Wyclif, William Langland, John Foxe, and John Donne, among others. She also identifies significant changes and previously unrecognized continuities in religious culture from the medieval era into early modernity. Walsh incorporates literary texts into the field of historical theology, exploring their theological background and identifying the unique contributions of literature to ecclesiological thought. She demonstrates that the feminine image of the Church was not simply a rhetorical convention. Rather, it forms part of a rich tradition that many authors conceptually refined and vividly reimagined over more than a millenium of religious history.