Religion in New Spain (Hardcover)

"Religion in New Spain" presents an overview of the history of colonial religious culture and encompasses aspects of religion in the many regions of New Spain. In reading these essays, it is clear the Spanish conquest was not the end-all of indigenous culture, that the Virgin of Guadalupe was a myth-in-the-making by locals as well as foreigners, that nuns and priests had real lives, and that the institutional colonial church, even post-Trent, was seldom if ever above or beyond political or economic influence.

Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole have divided the presentations into seven parts that represent general categories spanning the colonial era: "Encounters, Accommodation, and Outright Idolatry"; "Native Sexuality and Christian Morality"; "Believing in Miracles: Taking the Veil and New Realities"; "Guardian of the Christian Society: The Holy Office of the InquisitionRacism, Judaizing, and Gambling"; "Music and Martyrdom on the Northern Frontier"; and "Tangential Christianity on Other Frontiers: Business and Politics as Usual."

Sacred space can be anywhere and might not be bound by walls and ceilings. As the authors of these essays show, religion is often an attempt to reconcile the mysterious and unmanageable forces of nature, such as storms, droughts, floods, infestations of pests, epidemic diseases, and sicknesses; it is an attempt to control the uncontrollable.

Contributors:
Maureen Ahern--professor of Spanish, Ohio State University, Columbus
John Chuchiak IV--assistant professor of colonial Latin American history, Missouri State University
Monica Daz--assistant professor of colonial Lain American literature, University of Texas--Pan American
MarthaFew--associate professor of Latin American history, University of Arizona
Stanley M. Hordes--adjunct research professor at the Latin American and Iberian Institute, University of New Mexico
Asuncin Lavrin--professor of history, Arizona State University
Sonya Lipsett-Rivera--professor of history, Carleton University, Ontario, Canada
Kristin Dutcher Mann--assistant professor of history, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
Mara Elena Martnez--assistant professor of Latin American history, University of Southern California
Jeanette Favrot Peterson--associate professor of history of art and architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara
Michael Polushin--assistant professor of history, University of Southern Mississippi
James Riley--associate professor of history, Catholic University of America
Lisa Sousa--assistant professor of Latin American history, Occidental College, Los Angeles
David Tavrez--assistant professor of anthropology, Vassar College
Kevin Terraciano--director of Latin American studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Javier Villa-Flores--assistant professor, University of Illinois, Chicago