Download or read book Spiritual Marriage written by Dyan Elliott and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early Christian and medieval practice of spiritual marriage, in which husband and wife mutually and voluntarily relinquish sexual activity for reasons of piety, plays an important role in the development of the institution of marriage and in the understanding of female religiosity. Drawing on hagiography, chronicles, theology, canon law, and pastoral sources, Dyan Elliott traces the history of spiritual marriage in the West from apostolic times to the beginning of the sixteenth century.