Skepticism and Belief in Early Modern England

Analyzing a variety of literature-including religious polemic, dialogue, pamphlets, sermons, and treatises-Melissa Caldwell argues that a skeptical mode of thinking is embedded in the literary and rhetorical choices made by English writers who straddle the project of reform and the maintenance of orthodoxy after the Reformation in England. Far from being a radical belief simply indicative of an emerging secularism, she demonstrates that skepticism was instrumental to the defense of orthodox religion.