Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images by David Morgan

Abstract

book reviews321 Nevertheless, Vecsey's volume is a most worthwhUe, provocative, and challenging effort that attempts to tie present to past in the context of reUgious ritual and belief. His summations of Sonoran Catholicism, problems of authority among the Pueblos, secularization in California, and the recent controversy over FatherJunípero Serra underscore the importance of knowing an unbiased version of both human and ecclesiastical history. Far more a treatise on missiology than an historical overview of America's missions, On the Padres' Trail proves the continuing need for a document-based, contextuaUzed history of contact and conversion of America's native peoples. Charles W Polzer, SJ. Arizona State Museum Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images. By David Morgan. (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1997. Pp. xviii, 265. $35.00.) David Morgan, an art historian at Valparaiso University, is concerned with how the most predictable of mass-produced reUgious imagery may be invested with "vital meanings" in the lives of those who find the art useful (p. xv). In pursuit of this, he has composed a short but densely written book on popular Christian art in the United States. Visual Piety considers both Protestant and CathoUc imagery. Its subjects range from the aesthetic piety of Jonathan Edwards to the contemporary placement of reUgious prints in the home. It attempts to provide a history of popular Christian images, a survey of domestic religious practices, and a discussion of visual theory. In order to get a better sense of why people use pious art, Morgan placed advertisements in Protestant and Catholic magazines asking readers to send him their views on Warner SaUman 's "The Head of Christ." Their responses are analyzed throughout the text to show how people make and maintain their worlds through interaction with religious images. Using SaUman's art as a starting point, Morgan discusses other topics such as the mascuUne portrayal of Christ in Sunday School art, the "hidden " meaning in art, the role of art to stimulate memory. WhUe Morgan deals with the realm of the popular, his book would be a difficult read for those who are not already schooled in art theory and cultural history . The book ranges widely through phUosophical and sociological texts, and Morgan does not spare us the names of the many people he read before writing the book. VisualPiety is a history of ideas painted quickly and in broad strokes. It rarely considers the influence of technology, politics, or even denominational theology upon the production and use of reUgious images. Other than quoting from the letters sent to him about the "Head of Christ," Morgan does not include the voices of other Christians. He prefers to give us theoretical discussions about the images in holy cards, for example, rather than do the difficult historical and sociological work of finding examples of how Catholics at differ- 322book reviews ent times and places have understood the images. It is also unfortunate that the University of California Press only reproduced small black-and-white photographs , thus ignoring the rich potential that the images have to convey information . Visual Piety joins a number of new books on "lived reügions" whose authors persuasively argue that historians of reUgion can no longer afford to ignore the spirituaUty of the majority of religious people. Colleen McDannell University of Utah For Faith and Fortune: The Education of Catholic Immigrants in Detroit, 1805-1925- ByJoEUen McNergney Vinyard. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1998. Pp. xviii, 310. $49.95 clothbound; $18.95 paperback.) Make it local and the story is weU told. Mrs. Vinyard transforms the national story of CathoUc education, told so ably by Timothy Walch (Parish School: A History ofAmerican Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present, 1995) and Harold Buetow (Of Singular Benefit: The Story of Catholic Education in the United States, 1970), into an engaging encounter with the past by focusing on the City of Detroit and its CathoUc schools. While CathoUcs and Protestants in Detroit attempted to open schools in the first period of this story, only the rapid increase in population during the 1830's brought success. The newly developing public school movement competed with these parochial efforts. Taxes...