Religion in New Spain (review)

This collection of sixteen essays is a significant contribution to the history of the Church in colonial Mexico. It grew out of a conference at Tulane University in 2000 to celebrate the career of Richard Greenleaf. Many of these studies break new ground in analyzing not just the actions of the missionaries but the response of the natives as well.

The book is organized in seven parts. The first part looks at native responses to Christianity. Chapter 1, by Kevin Terraciano, studies native responses to Christianity in early colonial Oaxaca. Lisa Sousa focuses her essay on the sacrament of marriage among the Nahua people in the early colonial period. In chapter 3, David Tavárez analyzes ambivalent acceptance of Christianity among the Zapotec and the ensuing efforts to extirpate idolatry in that region. The second part explores issues of native sexual morality and the effects of Christianity on them. In chapter 4, Sonya Lipsett-Rivera examines the body and the language of the body as a means to understand religious thought and syncretism. John Chuchiak presents a well-researched study of solicitation in the confessional in colonial Yucatan. The third part looks at miracles, with Martha Few studying miraculous healings among children. In chapter 7, Jeanette Favrot Peterson analyzes the development of the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the seventeenth century. Part 4 looks at the role of nuns in colonial New Spain. Asuncion Lavrin discusses female visionaries and their spirituality, and Mónica Díaz analyzes the indigenous nuns in the convent of Corpus Christi. The fifth part looks at the Inquisition. In chapter 10, María Elena Martínez examines racial categories and purity of blood as evidenced in Inquisition testimony. Stanley Hordes focuses on the relationship between the Inquisition and crypto-Jews on the northern frontier. Javier Villa-Flores discusses the Inquisition's handling of the intersection of blasphemy and gambling. In part 6, the works center on music and martyrs. Kristen Dutcher Mann presents a study of music among the Franciscan and Jesuit missions in the north. Maureen Ahern discusses ritual warfare in the early missionary frontier of the northwest. The last part is more general, containing two essays. James Riley studies priests within the social order of Tlaxcala in the mid to late colonial period, while Michael Polushin looks at elites and reform efforts in late colonial Chiapas.

The essays are well written by scholars of great note, each in his or her specialty. Because the work covers such a broad range of topics, it is sure to be of interest to many who study nearly any aspect of colonial Mexican history. Some of the major themes running through the book are the issues related to the missionary effort. The interface between missionary and the natives is of critical importance. Unlike works of forty years ago, these studies grant far more agency to the natives in their efforts to process the import of Christianity within their own cultural framework. Another important topic deals with the notions of the miraculous and the mundane. In the study of Guadalupe, music, and the martyrs of the northern frontier, there are glimpses into a mentality that was unique and very important to the seventeenth century. As a group, the essays on the Inquisition are extremely helpful, looking at the Holy Office in several different contexts, including two frontier areas. This book is an important contribution to the literature. Each essay both fits within the larger topic of the work as a whole and stands on its own merits.