Description
Book SynopsisConsiders the role of religion and religiosity in modern Mexico, with an emphasis on popular religion and its relationship to politics. This book looks at individual stories and vignettes, and on local elements of religion, showing that despite efforts to secularize society, religion continues to be a strong component of Mexican culture.
Trade ReviewCollectively the authors address, often in imaginative ways, the breadth and depth of religiosity in Mexico and its consequences. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
Religious Culture in Modern Mexico compliments Martin Nesvig's other recent edited volume . . . providing the most comprehensive overview of current research on religion in Mexico. * Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture *
All the essays are well written and rooted in considerable scholarly research. . . . It should also appeal to anyone concerned with the role of religion and the Catholic Church in the modern era. * The Catholic Historical Review *
This follow-up to Nesvig's earlier collection of essays on local religion in colonial Mexico is conceptually more challenging than the excellent colonial volume because of the paucity of the literature on religion (as opposed to the literature on church-state relations) in the modern period, and because of the complexity of the political context. It succeeds brilliantly. Individually, the essays reach high levels of scholarly excellence, but even more impressively, they come together to provide an exciting new perspective on Mexican history in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. -- Margaret Chowning, University of California, Berkeley
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Miserables and Citizens: Indians, Legal Pluralism, and Religious Practice in Early Republican Mexico Chapter 3: "Para formar el corazón religioso de los jóvenes": Processes of Change in Collective Religiosity in Nineteenth-Century Oaxaca Chapter 4: Mexican Laywomen Spearhead a Catholic Revival: The Ladies of Charity, 1863–1910 Chapter 5: Liberal Religion: The Schism of 1861 Chapter 6: Priests and Caudillos in the Novel of the Mexican Nation Chapter 7: "A New Political Religious Order": Church, State, and Workers in Porfirian Mexico Chapter 8: Rights, Rule, and Religion: Old Colony Mennonites and Mexico's Transition to the Free Market, 1920–2000 Chapter 9: Visions of Women: Revelation, Gender, and Catholic Resurgence Chapter 10: Juan Soldado: The Popular Canonization of a Confessed Rapist-Murderer Chapter 11: Religion and the Mexican Revolution: Toward a New Historiography
