In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

18 Historically Speaking September/October 2008 nity" that traces "the ongoing eruption of presence into the spaces of its denial____" This "parallel history " can be traced at Lourdes and at other sites of Marian apparitions, and through other "abundant events." Where then do we find the "absence" imposedby "modernity"?I presumeitisin the academy, buteven there the recentworkon Marianapparitions and Orsi'sown careersuggestthatthe policingis less strictthan in the past. If this is so,itis in partbecause the "abundant historiography" of Marian apparitions that Orsi calls for, perhaps not as fully articulated as he would hope or as influential as it should be, nonetheless already exists. InthinkingaboutOrsi'sessay I recalled apassage from Marc Bloch's classic work on healing miracles, The Royal Touch, which lays out two contrasting approaches to religious events and then seeks to reconcile them. Bloch's categories of "romantic" and "Voltairian" do not match up perfecdy with Orsi's "modernity" and "abundance," forbothwouldprobably be subsets of a modernist historiography. But I cite thepassage nonethelessbecauseof itscall forinclusion and its generous tone, traits that I believe are implicit but not fully developed in Orsi's concept of "abundant event." For all religious phenomena, there are two traditional explanations. One—call it Voltairian,if youlike—prefers tosee the fact under study as the conscious work of an individual thought very sure of what it is doing. The other, on the contrary, looks rather for the expression of social forces of an obscure and profound nature; this might becalled the romanticapproach. Forhas not one of the great services of Romanticism been its vigorous accentuation of the spontaneous in human affairs? These two kinds of interpretations are only apparentlyin contradiction . If an institution marked out for particularendschosenbyanindividualwillis to take hold upon an entire nation, it must alsobeborne alongby thedeepercurrentsof collective consciousness. The reverse is perhaps also true: for a rather vague belief to become crystallized in a regular rite, it is of someimportance thatclearlyexpressed personal wills should help it to take shape.'0 ThomasKselmanisprofessorof historyatthe Universityof NotreDame. In2005heservedaspresidentof theAmerican Catholic HistoricalAssociation. In 2006 Princeton UniversityPresspublishedapaperback editionof hisDeath and Afterlife in Modern France. 1 In addition to the books cited by Orsi in note 2, seeJohnT. McGreevy ,"Bronx Miracle,"AmericanQuarterly52 (2000): 405-443; James S. Donnelly,Jr.,"The Marian Shrine of Knock: The First Decade," Eire-lrelandli (1993): 54-99. Although it does notdeal with Marian apparitions, William Christian,Jr., MovingCrucifixesin ModemSpain (Princeton University Press, 1992) explores similar phenomena withgreat sensitivity. 1 RobertOrsi, TheMadonnaof IISthStreet FaithandCommunityin Italian Harlem, 1880-19S0, 2nd ed. (Yale University Press, 2002); idem, Thank You, St.Jude: Women'sDevotiontothePatronSaintof HopelessCauses(Yale University Press, 1996). > RobenOrsi, BetweenHeavenandEarth: The Religious WorldsPeople MakeondéeScholars WhoStudyThem(Princeton UniversityPress, 2004). 4 Brad Gregory, "The OtherConfessional History: On Secular Bias in the Studyof Religion." HistoryandTheory45 (2006): 132149 ,quote from 137. MicheldeCerteau made a similar pointin The Writingof History,which firstappeared in French in 1975. AccordingtodeCerteau , for historians, "comprehendingreligious phenomena is tantamount to repeatedly askingsomethingelse of them than what they are meant to say; toquestioning them about what they teach usconcerning a social sums through personal or collective forms of spiritual life; to takingas a representationof the societywhat, from thetrpoim of view,foundedalii society ___ Between their time andours, the signifier and die signified have castled . We postulate a codingwhich inverts thatof the time we are studying" Michelde Certeau, The Writiiigof History, trans.Tom Coniey(ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1988), 138. * Michael P. Carroll, TheCultof the VirginMary: PsychologicalOrigins (Princeton University Press, 1986), 59. *William A. Christian,Jr., Visionaries: TheSpanishRepublicandthe Reignof Christ(Universityof California Press, 1996); idem,ApparitionsinLateMedievalandRenaissanceSpain f???e??? University Press, 1981); idem,MovingCrucifixes. Christian'searlier workon Spanish shrines is alsoexemplary, PersonandGodinaSpanish Valley, rev. ed. (Princeton University Press, 1989). ' Ruth Harris, Lourdes: BodyandSpiritintheSecularAge(New York: Viking, 1999). ' Stafford Poole, OurLadyof Guadalupe: TheOriginsandSourcesof a MexicanNationalSymbol, 1SJ1-I797(Universityof Arizona Press, 1995); idem, TheGuadalupanControversiesinMexico(Stanford University Press, 2006). 'Suzanne K. Kaufman, Consuming Visions:MassCultureandthe LourdesShrine(Cornel) University Press, 2005). u Marc Bloch, TheRoyalTouch:SacredMonarchyandScrofulainEng-¡andandFrance(McGúi-Queerís University Press, 1973),48. Abundant History: Protestantism and Alternative Modernities Jane Shaw In his provocative and innovative essay, Robert Orsi challenges historians of religion to write histories and theories of (religious) "presence," which he describes as "the breaking through into time of the...

pdf

Share