Mary E. McGann
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823229918
- eISBN:
- 9780823236633
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823229918.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book probes the distinctive contribution of Catholics to the life of the American church, and to the unfolding of lived Christianity in the United States. The book explores the ...
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This book probes the distinctive contribution of Catholics to the life of the American church, and to the unfolding of lived Christianity in the United States. The book explores the powerful spiritual renaissance that has marked African American life and self-understanding over the last several decades by examining one critical dimension: the forging of new expressions of Catholic worship rooted in the larger Catholic tradition, yet shaped in unique ways by African American religious culture. Starting with the 1960s, the book traces the dynamic interplay of social change, cultural awakening, and charismatic leadership that has sparked the emergence of distinctive styles of Black Catholic worship. In their historical overview, the authors chronicle the liturgical and pastoral issues of a Black Catholic liturgical movement that has transformed the larger American church. The foundational vision of Rev. Clarence R. J. Rivers, who promoted forms of Black worship, music, preaching, and prayer that have enabled African American Catholics to reclaim the fullness of their religious identity, is then examined. Finally, a Black Catholic aesthetic based on the theological, ethical, and liturgical insights of four African American scholars is constructed, and expressed through twenty-three performative values. This liturgical aesthetic illuminates the distinctive gift of Black Catholics to the multicultural tapestry of lived faith in the American church and can also serve as a pastoral model for other cultural communities.Less
This book probes the distinctive contribution of Catholics to the life of the American church, and to the unfolding of lived Christianity in the United States. The book explores the powerful spiritual renaissance that has marked African American life and self-understanding over the last several decades by examining one critical dimension: the forging of new expressions of Catholic worship rooted in the larger Catholic tradition, yet shaped in unique ways by African American religious culture. Starting with the 1960s, the book traces the dynamic interplay of social change, cultural awakening, and charismatic leadership that has sparked the emergence of distinctive styles of Black Catholic worship. In their historical overview, the authors chronicle the liturgical and pastoral issues of a Black Catholic liturgical movement that has transformed the larger American church. The foundational vision of Rev. Clarence R. J. Rivers, who promoted forms of Black worship, music, preaching, and prayer that have enabled African American Catholics to reclaim the fullness of their religious identity, is then examined. Finally, a Black Catholic aesthetic based on the theological, ethical, and liturgical insights of four African American scholars is constructed, and expressed through twenty-three performative values. This liturgical aesthetic illuminates the distinctive gift of Black Catholics to the multicultural tapestry of lived faith in the American church and can also serve as a pastoral model for other cultural communities.
John J. Piderit and Melanie M. Morey (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199795307
- eISBN:
- 9780199932894
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795307.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The essential activity of Catholic colleges and universities at the undergraduate level is teaching material that is enlightened, contrasted, or highlighted by Catholic perspectives. Until about ...
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The essential activity of Catholic colleges and universities at the undergraduate level is teaching material that is enlightened, contrasted, or highlighted by Catholic perspectives. Until about forty years ago this task was carried out predominantly by priests, sisters, and brothers. Bound to the Catholic Church in a special way, these people are no longer represented in significant numbers at Catholic institutions of higher education, and laypeople are now responsible for teaching in the Catholic tradition. The challenge is that priests, nuns, and brothers received extensive training in how the Catholic faith is related to the specific academic discipline they taught. Laypeople need “Catholic resources” if, following in the footsteps of the sisters, brothers, and priests, they wish to share the Catholic intellectual tradition with their students. At a Catholic institution a layperson in a particular academic discipline is expected to address religious themes that amplify or nuance the normal material presented in the secular discipline. Theology and philosophy are central to Catholic institutions of higher education. But laypeople who are inclined to include religious themes in their usual undergraduate classes play a vital role in strengthening the Catholic mission, identity, and character of a Catholic institution. This book provides resources for faculty members at Catholic institutions who want to incorporate Christian religious themes in the academic disciplines in which they are specialists.Less
The essential activity of Catholic colleges and universities at the undergraduate level is teaching material that is enlightened, contrasted, or highlighted by Catholic perspectives. Until about forty years ago this task was carried out predominantly by priests, sisters, and brothers. Bound to the Catholic Church in a special way, these people are no longer represented in significant numbers at Catholic institutions of higher education, and laypeople are now responsible for teaching in the Catholic tradition. The challenge is that priests, nuns, and brothers received extensive training in how the Catholic faith is related to the specific academic discipline they taught. Laypeople need “Catholic resources” if, following in the footsteps of the sisters, brothers, and priests, they wish to share the Catholic intellectual tradition with their students. At a Catholic institution a layperson in a particular academic discipline is expected to address religious themes that amplify or nuance the normal material presented in the secular discipline. Theology and philosophy are central to Catholic institutions of higher education. But laypeople who are inclined to include religious themes in their usual undergraduate classes play a vital role in strengthening the Catholic mission, identity, and character of a Catholic institution. This book provides resources for faculty members at Catholic institutions who want to incorporate Christian religious themes in the academic disciplines in which they are specialists.
JAMES T. FISHER and MARGARET M. MCGUINNESS
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823234103
- eISBN:
- 9780823240906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234103.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the concept of “tradition,” a key term in negotiations to position Catholic Studies as an interdisciplinary field embedded in the spaces between well-established discourses of ...
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This chapter explores the concept of “tradition,” a key term in negotiations to position Catholic Studies as an interdisciplinary field embedded in the spaces between well-established discourses of religious studies and theology. The relatively recent phenomenon that finds privately endowed positions in Catholic Studies ensconced in both public and private non-Catholic universities has created an unprecedented opportunity and challenge. This chapter suggests that Catholic Studies scholars at secular universities will inhabit a variety of stances in relationship to Catholic tradition. Students in turn will bring their own convictions, from religious doubt to ardent desires that coursework enhance personal faith formation along with intellectual growth. The author herself avows a preferential option for exploring the meanings invested in religious traditions over judging claims made in their name, a practice that might flourish as one among a compelling variety of approaches embraced by scholars in Catholic Studies. Catholic universities are related in some way to the Catholic Church and, thus, are positioned within the Catholic tradition.Less
This chapter explores the concept of “tradition,” a key term in negotiations to position Catholic Studies as an interdisciplinary field embedded in the spaces between well-established discourses of religious studies and theology. The relatively recent phenomenon that finds privately endowed positions in Catholic Studies ensconced in both public and private non-Catholic universities has created an unprecedented opportunity and challenge. This chapter suggests that Catholic Studies scholars at secular universities will inhabit a variety of stances in relationship to Catholic tradition. Students in turn will bring their own convictions, from religious doubt to ardent desires that coursework enhance personal faith formation along with intellectual growth. The author herself avows a preferential option for exploring the meanings invested in religious traditions over judging claims made in their name, a practice that might flourish as one among a compelling variety of approaches embraced by scholars in Catholic Studies. Catholic universities are related in some way to the Catholic Church and, thus, are positioned within the Catholic tradition.
James T. Fisher and Margaret M. McGuinness (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823234103
- eISBN:
- 9780823240906
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234103.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This is a rare book in an emerging field that has neither a documented history nor a consensus as to what should be a normative methodology. Dividing this volume into five interrelated themes central ...
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This is a rare book in an emerging field that has neither a documented history nor a consensus as to what should be a normative methodology. Dividing this volume into five interrelated themes central to the practice and theory of Catholic Studies —Sources and Contexts, Traditions and Methods, Pedagogy and Practice, Ethnicity, Race, and Catholic Studies, and The Catholic Imagination—the editors provide readers with the opportunity to understand the great diversity within this area of study. Readers will find essays on the Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholic social teaching, as well as reflections on the arts and literature.Less
This is a rare book in an emerging field that has neither a documented history nor a consensus as to what should be a normative methodology. Dividing this volume into five interrelated themes central to the practice and theory of Catholic Studies —Sources and Contexts, Traditions and Methods, Pedagogy and Practice, Ethnicity, Race, and Catholic Studies, and The Catholic Imagination—the editors provide readers with the opportunity to understand the great diversity within this area of study. Readers will find essays on the Catholic intellectual tradition and Catholic social teaching, as well as reflections on the arts and literature.
Annabel S. Brett
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141930
- eISBN:
- 9781400838622
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141930.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter explores the concept of natural law, turning first to the Protestant milieu. Alterity—what would in the seventeenth century come to be theorized, and problematized, as “sociability”—is ...
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This chapter explores the concept of natural law, turning first to the Protestant milieu. Alterity—what would in the seventeenth century come to be theorized, and problematized, as “sociability”—is the dominant mood of the humanist and Protestant handling of natural law. It is there even in Thomas Hobbes, whose natural law coincides with moral philosophy and concerns the sphere of one's actions in respect of others. However, the Catholic scholastic tradition presents a very different framing of natural law, one that centers on individual agency and regulates the behavior of individual agents in their aspect as beings of a particular kind. While authors in this tradition grapple equally with the question of animal behavior in relation to law, they do not do so from the social perspective that characterizes Protestant humanist Aristotelians and jurists.Less
This chapter explores the concept of natural law, turning first to the Protestant milieu. Alterity—what would in the seventeenth century come to be theorized, and problematized, as “sociability”—is the dominant mood of the humanist and Protestant handling of natural law. It is there even in Thomas Hobbes, whose natural law coincides with moral philosophy and concerns the sphere of one's actions in respect of others. However, the Catholic scholastic tradition presents a very different framing of natural law, one that centers on individual agency and regulates the behavior of individual agents in their aspect as beings of a particular kind. While authors in this tradition grapple equally with the question of animal behavior in relation to law, they do not do so from the social perspective that characterizes Protestant humanist Aristotelians and jurists.
TILL WAHNBAECK
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199269839
- eISBN:
- 9780191710056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199269839.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This chapter investigates the treatment of luxury by Ferdinando Paoletti, who was influenced by the issue of economic stagnation, peasant ministry, and improvement of the countryside. It explains ...
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This chapter investigates the treatment of luxury by Ferdinando Paoletti, who was influenced by the issue of economic stagnation, peasant ministry, and improvement of the countryside. It explains that Paoletti argues that luxury detracts from efforts to make agriculture profitable and that the inspiration that he drew from physiocratic writings was visible enough. It discusses how the pragmatic tradition of Tuscan thought together with the powerful influence of French economic thinking had substantially altered the discussion. It stresses that even the enlightened Catholic tradition had to accept the vocabulary and the concepts of the pragmatic school in order to say their moral concerns.Less
This chapter investigates the treatment of luxury by Ferdinando Paoletti, who was influenced by the issue of economic stagnation, peasant ministry, and improvement of the countryside. It explains that Paoletti argues that luxury detracts from efforts to make agriculture profitable and that the inspiration that he drew from physiocratic writings was visible enough. It discusses how the pragmatic tradition of Tuscan thought together with the powerful influence of French economic thinking had substantially altered the discussion. It stresses that even the enlightened Catholic tradition had to accept the vocabulary and the concepts of the pragmatic school in order to say their moral concerns.
John C. Waldmeir
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230600
- eISBN:
- 9780823236923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823230600.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This chapter examines the Catholic tradition in the works of American writer Annie Dillard. In her essay “Expedition to the Pole”, Dillard describes her experience in attending a Catholic Mass and ...
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This chapter examines the Catholic tradition in the works of American writer Annie Dillard. In her essay “Expedition to the Pole”, Dillard describes her experience in attending a Catholic Mass and her eventual conversion to Catholicism. It states that in attending a Second Sunday of Advent, Dillard was caught up in one of her literary themes: the relentless flow of time. The hallmark feature of her writing is that one cannot summarize much more than a brief portion before breaking off to provide background and establish a working chronology.Less
This chapter examines the Catholic tradition in the works of American writer Annie Dillard. In her essay “Expedition to the Pole”, Dillard describes her experience in attending a Catholic Mass and her eventual conversion to Catholicism. It states that in attending a Second Sunday of Advent, Dillard was caught up in one of her literary themes: the relentless flow of time. The hallmark feature of her writing is that one cannot summarize much more than a brief portion before breaking off to provide background and establish a working chronology.
Francis A. Sullivan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199778775
- eISBN:
- 9780190258306
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199778775.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the issue of distinguishing between Tradition and traditions of the Catholic Church. It first considers the views of Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, Joseph Ratzinger, and Karl ...
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This chapter examines the issue of distinguishing between Tradition and traditions of the Catholic Church. It first considers the views of Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, Joseph Ratzinger, and Karl Rahner as well as the report of the World Council of Churches's Faith and Order Commission about Tradition and traditions. It then considers the question of how one can be sure that particular traditions are authentic embodiments of the Tradition and presents two examples of Catholic traditions that have become obsolete in the course of time: slavery and religious liberty. It also discusses the position of Avery Cardinal Dulles in a review of Judge John T. Noonan's book, A Church That Can and Cannot Change.Less
This chapter examines the issue of distinguishing between Tradition and traditions of the Catholic Church. It first considers the views of Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, Joseph Ratzinger, and Karl Rahner as well as the report of the World Council of Churches's Faith and Order Commission about Tradition and traditions. It then considers the question of how one can be sure that particular traditions are authentic embodiments of the Tradition and presents two examples of Catholic traditions that have become obsolete in the course of time: slavery and religious liberty. It also discusses the position of Avery Cardinal Dulles in a review of Judge John T. Noonan's book, A Church That Can and Cannot Change.
Leon Hooper
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228089
- eISBN:
- 9780823236954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228089.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter uses the biblical exhortation, “love your enemies”, to illustrate John Courtney Murray's spiritual and intellectual journey. It shows how Murray grew deeper in his Catholic tradition ...
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This chapter uses the biblical exhortation, “love your enemies”, to illustrate John Courtney Murray's spiritual and intellectual journey. It shows how Murray grew deeper in his Catholic tradition before having to transcend and transform the limitations of that tradition in order to enter genuine dialogue with the world. The chapter notes that “while Murray never wrote much on loving one's enemies, he did have a clearly identifiable enemies list”. It takes us through Murray's list—the idea of Americanism, the professors and administrators at the Catholic University of America (who helped to silence him), American Protestants in general, and atheists in particular. The chapter describes Murray's “hatred” toward Protestants and atheists, how his own Catholic tradition consciously and unconsciously fostered that hatred, and how he found hidden in that tradition a way to “bear the cross” of others and come to love his enemies.Less
This chapter uses the biblical exhortation, “love your enemies”, to illustrate John Courtney Murray's spiritual and intellectual journey. It shows how Murray grew deeper in his Catholic tradition before having to transcend and transform the limitations of that tradition in order to enter genuine dialogue with the world. The chapter notes that “while Murray never wrote much on loving one's enemies, he did have a clearly identifiable enemies list”. It takes us through Murray's list—the idea of Americanism, the professors and administrators at the Catholic University of America (who helped to silence him), American Protestants in general, and atheists in particular. The chapter describes Murray's “hatred” toward Protestants and atheists, how his own Catholic tradition consciously and unconsciously fostered that hatred, and how he found hidden in that tradition a way to “bear the cross” of others and come to love his enemies.
Paul J. Griffiths
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190280031
- eISBN:
- 9780190280062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190280031.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Catholic “threnodists” lament the state of the contemporary pagan (i.e., nonaffiliated with Christian or Jewish tradition) university; “spoliasts” look for and find the goods evident there, eager to ...
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Catholic “threnodists” lament the state of the contemporary pagan (i.e., nonaffiliated with Christian or Jewish tradition) university; “spoliasts” look for and find the goods evident there, eager to discover resources that permit the Church to arrive at a fuller understanding of revelation. Pagan universities can inculcate intellectual virtues and certain moral habits, but they cannot offer students or represent to faculty any shared unitary idea of what intellectual work is or what it is for, because there is no agreement on such an idea. Catholic intellectual tradition can give an account of intellectual life and of how its various specialties relate one to another. Practitioners of Catholic intellectual tradition within the pagan university should celebrate and expropriate—spoliate—the genuine goods that are there.Less
Catholic “threnodists” lament the state of the contemporary pagan (i.e., nonaffiliated with Christian or Jewish tradition) university; “spoliasts” look for and find the goods evident there, eager to discover resources that permit the Church to arrive at a fuller understanding of revelation. Pagan universities can inculcate intellectual virtues and certain moral habits, but they cannot offer students or represent to faculty any shared unitary idea of what intellectual work is or what it is for, because there is no agreement on such an idea. Catholic intellectual tradition can give an account of intellectual life and of how its various specialties relate one to another. Practitioners of Catholic intellectual tradition within the pagan university should celebrate and expropriate—spoliate—the genuine goods that are there.
David Morgan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520272224
- eISBN:
- 9780520952140
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520272224.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Visual Culture
This book builds on the author’s previous groundbreaking work to offer this new, systematically integrated theory of the study of religion as visual culture. Providing key tools for scholars across ...
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This book builds on the author’s previous groundbreaking work to offer this new, systematically integrated theory of the study of religion as visual culture. Providing key tools for scholars across disciplines studying the materiality of religions, the author gives an accessibly written theoretical overview including case studies of the ways seeing is related to touching, hearing, feeling, and such ephemeral experiences as dreams, imagination, and visions. The case studies explore both the high and low of religious visual culture: Catholic traditions of the erotic Sacred Heart of Jesus, the unrecognizability of the Virgin in the Fatima apparitions, the prehistory of Warner Sallman’s face of Jesus, and more. Basing the study of religious images and visual practices in the relationship between seeing and the senses, the author argues against reductionist models of “the gaze,” demonstrating that vision is not something that occurs in abstraction, but is a fundamental way of embodying the human self.Less
This book builds on the author’s previous groundbreaking work to offer this new, systematically integrated theory of the study of religion as visual culture. Providing key tools for scholars across disciplines studying the materiality of religions, the author gives an accessibly written theoretical overview including case studies of the ways seeing is related to touching, hearing, feeling, and such ephemeral experiences as dreams, imagination, and visions. The case studies explore both the high and low of religious visual culture: Catholic traditions of the erotic Sacred Heart of Jesus, the unrecognizability of the Virgin in the Fatima apparitions, the prehistory of Warner Sallman’s face of Jesus, and more. Basing the study of religious images and visual practices in the relationship between seeing and the senses, the author argues against reductionist models of “the gaze,” demonstrating that vision is not something that occurs in abstraction, but is a fundamental way of embodying the human self.
Avery Cardinal Dulles
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228621
- eISBN:
- 9780823236619
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228621.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The author of this book has written and lectured on a wide range of topics across his career, and for a wide range of audiences. Integrating faith and scholarship, he has created a ...
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The author of this book has written and lectured on a wide range of topics across his career, and for a wide range of audiences. Integrating faith and scholarship, he has created a rich body of work that, in the words of one observer, is “both faithful to Catholic tradition and fresh in its engagement with the contemporary world” Here are the talks the author has given twice each year since the Laurence J. McGinley Lectures were initiated in 1988, conceived broadly as a forum on Church and society. The result is a diverse collection that reflects the breadth of his thinking and engages with many of the most important—and difficult—religious issues of our day. Organized chronologically, the lectures are often responses to timely issues, such as the relationship between religion and politics, a topic he treated in the last weeks of the presidential campaign of 1992. Other lectures take up questions surrounding human rights, faith and evolution, forgiveness, the death penalty, the doctrine of religious freedom, the population of hell, and a whole array of theological subjects, many of which intersect with culture and politics. The life of the Church is a major and welcome focus of the lectures, whether they be a reflection on Cardinal Newman or an exploration of the difficulties of interfaith dialogue. The author responds frequently to initiatives of the Holy See, discussing gender and priesthood in the context of church teaching, and Pope Benedict's interpretation of Vatican II. He seeks to “render the wisdom of past ages applicable to the world in which we live”. For those seeking to share in this wisdom, this book will be a guide to what it means to be Catholic—indeed, to be a person of any faith—in a world of rapid, relentless change.Less
The author of this book has written and lectured on a wide range of topics across his career, and for a wide range of audiences. Integrating faith and scholarship, he has created a rich body of work that, in the words of one observer, is “both faithful to Catholic tradition and fresh in its engagement with the contemporary world” Here are the talks the author has given twice each year since the Laurence J. McGinley Lectures were initiated in 1988, conceived broadly as a forum on Church and society. The result is a diverse collection that reflects the breadth of his thinking and engages with many of the most important—and difficult—religious issues of our day. Organized chronologically, the lectures are often responses to timely issues, such as the relationship between religion and politics, a topic he treated in the last weeks of the presidential campaign of 1992. Other lectures take up questions surrounding human rights, faith and evolution, forgiveness, the death penalty, the doctrine of religious freedom, the population of hell, and a whole array of theological subjects, many of which intersect with culture and politics. The life of the Church is a major and welcome focus of the lectures, whether they be a reflection on Cardinal Newman or an exploration of the difficulties of interfaith dialogue. The author responds frequently to initiatives of the Holy See, discussing gender and priesthood in the context of church teaching, and Pope Benedict's interpretation of Vatican II. He seeks to “render the wisdom of past ages applicable to the world in which we live”. For those seeking to share in this wisdom, this book will be a guide to what it means to be Catholic—indeed, to be a person of any faith—in a world of rapid, relentless change.
Frank Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190663476
- eISBN:
- 9780190940263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190663476.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The chapter opens with discussion of the restoration of San Rafael in La Cueva as an illustration of how a few committed mayordomos (church caretakers) are struggling to save churches that have ...
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The chapter opens with discussion of the restoration of San Rafael in La Cueva as an illustration of how a few committed mayordomos (church caretakers) are struggling to save churches that have little parish and archdiocese support. Several interviewed mayordomos comment on the topic and explain the reasons for their commitment. The following section discusses the relations of church restoration to tradition, to community identity, and to social bonding, among other factors. The chapter also explores parish and archdiocese attitudes toward historic village churches in the context of depopulation and reduced congregations. Obsolescence of the churches is being accelerated by centralization of masses and sacraments, and by displacement of the cost of mission maintenance and insurance to the villages. The chapter concludes with a visiting guide.Less
The chapter opens with discussion of the restoration of San Rafael in La Cueva as an illustration of how a few committed mayordomos (church caretakers) are struggling to save churches that have little parish and archdiocese support. Several interviewed mayordomos comment on the topic and explain the reasons for their commitment. The following section discusses the relations of church restoration to tradition, to community identity, and to social bonding, among other factors. The chapter also explores parish and archdiocese attitudes toward historic village churches in the context of depopulation and reduced congregations. Obsolescence of the churches is being accelerated by centralization of masses and sacraments, and by displacement of the cost of mission maintenance and insurance to the villages. The chapter concludes with a visiting guide.
