Understanding ‘prophecy’: charisma, religious enthusiasm, and religious individualisation in the 17th century. A cross-cultural approach

'Religious enthusiasm' was a cross-cultural phenomenon that appeared among different religious groups in the early modern period. Enthusiasm deployed similar practices – mainly possession, speaking in tongue, trances – which enabled men and women to become ‘prophets’. The body was the major means of this experience, which could be sought through a great number of ascetic and semi-ascetic practices. This article aims to analyze cross-cultural phenomena of religious enthusiasm in 17th and early 18th century, focusing on Jews, Catholics, and Protestants and it offers some insight upon extreme forms of religious individualization which implied the use of the body-mind relation, although always in a protected social setting