"The Christian religion is deeply imbued with the imagery of water, and water plays a central role in its religious practices, not least in baptism. Yet the wider role of water in Christianity has been little explored. In this pioneering book, Terje Oestigaard uses the dramatic changes that took place in perceptions of water during the Reformation to reveal the importance that water played in structuring society and religion in the post-Reformation period. He concludes by examining, and challenging, the widely accepted view that the capitalist spirit of enterprise - so important to the later success of the Industrial Revolution - came about when magic and superstition were eliminated from religion by the Reformation."--Publisher's website.