Popular Religiosity Research Articles

Massification and its Critique in the Nineteenth Century History of Ideas: József Eötvös on Popular Meanings and Public Life

Writing after the failure of the 1848 Hungarian revolution, Jozsef Eotvos, himself a prominent politician and novelist, grappled with the sources of the failure and conditions of success of social and political reforms. In his monumental work, The Dominant Ideas of the Nineteenth Century and their Impact on the State, he proposed that in order to understand the behaviour of the masses and design social and political reforms that will have popular support, one needed to understand the meanings people assigned to popular ideas—as opposed to meanings assigned to them by theorists. Popularity, in this approach, had three components: ideas around which people rallied, emotions that connected them to these ideas, and actions people undertook in their name. The way towards understanding these components was to understand the culture of the people in its various manifestations, from popular religiosity to literary and material culture. By re-reading Eotvos’s work focusing on his conception of popular ideas, this paper investigates how the longstanding tension between popularity and the distrust in populism was articulated in a classic of nineteenth century central European political thought.

Comunicación y fronteras simbólicas. Religiosidad popular en el pueblo pesquero de Santa Rosa

En el puerto pesquero de Santa Rosa de Salinas, posiblemente ocurre la procesión náutica más grande del Ecuador. Existe una frontera simbólica conformada por imágenes, ritos religiosos y un complejo sistema de comunicación, donde interacciona la religión oficial con la religiosidad popular, y se producen importantes cambios en los significados y en la realidad que estos representan. El objetivo del trabajo fue establecer los límites simbólicos y los cambios de significado, que las imágenes religiosas producen y experimentan, tanto en el contexto de la religión oficial, así como en el escenario de la religiosidad popular del pescador. La investigación cualitativa etnográfica permitió la interpretación de los significados, participando de la experiencia y sistematizando el proceso. Se realizaron entrevistas a profundidad durante las actividades, previas, posteriores a la procesión náutica, en un lapso de dos años y se realizó la travesía náutica para su posterior descripción. Los resultados fueron: conocer un fenómeno cultural y sus fronteras de significación. Comprender el funcionamiento del sistema de comunicación y sus símbolos religiosos; y, entender el funcionamiento de las fronteras simbólicas en los intersticios entre la religión oficial y la religiosidad popular. En conclusión; los actos de devoción y lúdica coexisten en el fenómeno y aunque fracturan la estructura del modelo de comunicación oficial, validan el mensaje litúrgico y reproducen expresiones híbridas de la cultura popular a través de símbolos inestables en su significación.

Immigration and Multiculturalism in Italy: The Religious Experience of the Peruvian Community in the Eternal City

The present study on the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome belongs to the area of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy. In this article, I analyze the devotion of the Peruvian community in Rome to “the Lord of Miracles”. This pious tradition, which venerates the image of Christ crucified—painted by an Angolan slave—began in 1651 in Lima, during the Viceroyalty of Peru. Today, the sacred image is venerated in countries all over the world that host Peruvian immigrant communities that have set up branches of the Confraternity of the Lord of Miracles. I examine, in particular, the cult of el Señor de los Milagros in Rome in terms of Peruvian popular religiosity and national identity experienced within a transnational context. This essay serves two purposes: The first is to analyze the significance that this religious experience acquires in a foreign environment while maintaining links with its country of origin and its cultural traditions in a multilocal environment. The second aim is to examine the integration of the Peruvian community into Italian society, beginning with religious practice, in this case Roman Catholicism. This kind of religiosity seems not only to favor the encounter between the two cultures but also to render Italian Roman Catholicism multicultural.

AO RITMO DE TAMBORES E MARACÁS: TAMBOR DE MINA E PAJELANÇA NO MARANHÃO DE MEADOS DO SÉCULO XX

O presente artigo enfoca o Maranhão de meados do século XX, quando, a exemplo de outros estados do Brasil, observa-se que alguns lugares de expressão das religiões de matriz africana começam, ainda que timidamente, a ser vistos, positivamente, como elementos da cultura nacional e regional. Entretanto, isto não impede que os sujeitos identificados com religiões e religiosidades populares e de matriz africana continuem a ser objeto de preconceito, discriminação e violência. Diante disso, o povo de santo, alvo prioritário da perseguição policial e ao qual se nega até o direito de existir, insiste em demarcar sua alteridade e em intervir no mundo social.

Major Socio–Political Factors that Impact on the Changing Role, Perception and Image of Imams among Dutch–Turkish Muslims

Public debates in the Netherlands assume there is an inherent tension between the traditional task of the imam and his tasks in the secularized Dutch society. Studies of the effect of age and generation on religiosity report that intense religious changes are taking place among second-generation migrants. But the direction of this change is interpreted differently by scholars. A majority of scholars indicate that second-generation migrants consider themselves more ‘Muslim’ and are more concerned about the traditional sources of religious authority. Other studies report that there is an ongoing pattern of secularization among Muslims in Europe and that second-generation migrants consider themselves less concerned about the traditional and popular sources of religious leadership and authority. In relation to the findings of my PhD study, in this contribution, I elaborate on several factors to shed some light on the possible reasons behind these different findings. These factors are, in turn, the lack of language skills and knowledge of the local culture, the politization of Diyanet’s institutional culture, and the secularization of young immigrant identity. While discussing these factors, I evaluated their role in the formation of the public image of imams. The results indicate that the image of the imam in Dutch–Turkish Muslim communities is not uniform. On the one hand, there are the educated interviewees and spiritually oriented respondents, who generally criticize the ignorance of most imams and the irrelevance of their sermons to young Muslims in Europe. On the other hand, there are the less educated respondents and the respondents who strongly experience popular religiosity, who do not question the authority of imams. The image of the imam in the minds of the majority of Dutch–Turkish Muslims is positive and retains its authority.

Why Study Religion from a Latin American Sociological Perspective? An Introduction to Religions Issue, “Religion in Latin America, and among Latinos Abroad”

This article introduces the Religions issue on Latin American religiosity exploring sociological perspectives on the Latin American religious situation, from a Latin American perspective. The Secularization Theory proposes “the more modernity, the less religion”, but in Latin America we see both, modernity and religiosity. The Religious Economy model, on the other hand, affirms “the more pluralization, the more religion”, but in Latin America there is not so much pluralization, and it is not easy to switch from one religion to other. Finally, the article presents a Latin American model, the “popular religiosity” one. The problem with it, is that it is mostly ‘Catholic,’ and so does not account for the growing religious diversity in the region. It also emphasizes the “popular” aspect, excluding middle socioeconomic status individuals and elites, assuming they practice “real” religion. This introduction presents a critical approach as a way to recover, describe, and understand Latin American religious practices. This methodology might be a path to creating sociological categories to understand religion beyond the north Atlantic world.

Towards a popular queer Mariology: rediscovering the virgin through popular religiosity

ABSTRACTIn the dominant theological production of Mary as holy “Virgin,” theological discourses have ironically hyper-sexualized the Mother of God. This article explores the sexuality of the Virgin, introducing a Popular Queer Mariology. Engaging with Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s treatment of Guadalupe/la Chingada/la Llorona, as well as veneration of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, this article contends that popular religiosity provides resources for queering the figure of Mary in ways that destabilizes whore/virgin binaries and affirms death, finitude, and the materiality of the body that dominant theological discourses have attempted to negate.

Popular Religiosity and Images of the Priesthood during the First World War and Revolution

Popular Religiosity and Images of the Priesthood during the First World War and Revolution

Народная религиозность и образы духовенства в годы Первой мировой войны и революции

Народная религиозность и образы духовенства в годы Первой мировой войны и революции

Da indeterminação do mundo: os santos, o mar, a luz

In this paper, I suggest that we confront the arguments of symbolic precedence with those of utilitarian reason in the relations of societies with the sea. In order to do so, the text explores multiple chronological layers and thematic nuclei of various disciplinary sectors, taking as a starting point the domain of funerary boats and navigation in the reports of the arrival by sea of founding saints relics, such as S. James and S. Vicente. This theme has several replicas and variants presumably connected with political interests associated with the sacralization of the ocean and the resources it may provide (‘good to eat, good to think’…). It also has shown enduring expression in some narratives from today’s popular religiosity. I take randomness and indeterminacy as a fundamental epistemological issue that not only is characteristic of lifestyles and beliefs associated to the oceanic interfaces, but that also concerns all human beings across cultures. Accordingly, the text emphasizes scopic dimensions and cognitive processes, identifying some elements that refer to the experience of light, atmosphere, and the lived continuities between the aquatic and celestial elements. Inspired by the principles of autopoietic theory, this proposal explores recent and innovative theoretical perspectives in Anthropology and beyond, seeking for an alternative equation to the determinism of both initial arguments.

Mexican Immigrants, the Gary-Alerding Settlement House, and the Limits of Catholic Americanization in Gary, Indiana, 1919–1928

Mexican immigrants first came to Gary, Indiana in large numbers during the 1919 steel strike. The United States Steel Corporation (U.S. Steel) continued to recruit Mexicans as workers in the years that followed and Mexicans soon became Gary's largest immigrant population. During the 1920s, the high number of immigrant steelworkers, the recent steel strike, and the Red Scare impelled Gary's native-born residents to fund Americanization programs. To this end, the Fort Wayne Diocese assigned Father Jean Baptiste De Ville to build a Catholic settlement house that would spearhead these post-war Americanization efforts. He partnered with U.S. Steel in founding the Gary-Alerding settlement house to fight communism among Catholic immigrant steelworkers through a Catholic Americanization strategy designed to instill obedience to centralized religious authority and support industrial capitalism. Mexican immigrant steelworkers did not respond well to De Ville's effort to enforce political and religious conformity, having developed a popular religiosity that did not rely on engaging the institutional Church via clergy or parish-based worship. Unable to recognize the limitations of his strategy toward the Mexican population, De Ville, by the end of the decade, viewed the Americanization efforts as a failure.

Religiosidad popular en las Conferencias Episcopales Latinoamericanas y en el Magisterio de Francisco

In this article I will give a description of Latin American popular religiosity, highlighting its approach in the Magisterium of the Church and in the Episcopal Conferences from Medellin to Aparecida. I will work off of the Magisterium of Pope Francis, especially from the guidelines that appear in Evangelii Gaudium on the topic. The same theological line of Cardinal Bergoglio, who was the Chairman of the Committee for the Drafting of the Final Document of Aparecida, is observed in his Magisterium based on the theology of the people. The Marian shrine of Aparecida marks a theological line, which we can perceive as the time of Mary. That place is a sign to highlight and remove from the anonymity of the Marian popular faith that has quietly grown and continues to spread, evangelizing itself in a very creative way. The Pope has captured this silent action in the hearts of the people who love and follow the Mother of God beyond the eclesial structures and the ecclesial institution. It is a challenge that sets the church in motion, breaking paradigms and opening doors, so that the Spirit may become flesh in the most unprotected and weakest that only have the Savior’s Mother as hope. Let us think of the thousands of faithful who come to the shrines asking for health, peace, work, food... on a continent that remains imprisoned in structures that produce more disadvantaged every day.

Hiking paths and intangible heritage: a quest for cultural roots. Cases in the province of Castellón, Spain

The inland areas of the province of Castellón harbour a significant number of pilgrimage routes and mountain sanctuaries dating back to medieval times. Each year, these manifestations of intangible heritage and popular religiosity welcome a growing number of participants, drawn by nature, their heritage elements, and sport. These routes have given rise to new ones, and athletic events have appeared, some of them enjoying international fame, illustrating the strong relationship between cultural heritage, nature and sport, to such an extent that it has become a significant problem, as the high levels of outside participation can undercut the original nature of these practices.

PADRE ANTÔNIO RIBEIRO PINTO NA RELIGIOSIDADE POPULAR POR MEIO DA LITERATURA DE CORDEL

Partindo do ciclo de folhetos sobre o Padre Antônio Ribeiro Pinto, publicado por Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante, um dos maiores poetas da literatura de cordel, o artigo, utilizando o acervo digital da Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa como fonte de pesquisa, propõe uma análise da construção mítica da figura do Padre Antônio na religiosidade popular. Para tal, passará pela biografia do sacerdote, por alguns dos milagres atribuídos a ele e pela religiosidade da cidade que ficou conhecida a partir de sua atuação, atraindo inúmeras pessoas da região Nordeste do Brasil em busca de milagres, o que foi registrado nos folhetos da Literatura de cordel por Rodolfo Coelho Cavalcante.

Poststructuralist Reading of Popular Religiosity in the Devotion to the Black Nazarene in Quiapo

The article is a poststructuralist reading of the discourses on popular religiosity exemplified in the devotion to the Black Nazarene in Quiapo. Popular religiosity is considered the religious expression of the ‘ordinary’ believers in the margins relation to the official hierarchical Church. Poststructuralist interpretation shows how power operates like a thread network where those in the periphery can own their faith: this is described as discourse, an expression of the devotees’ faith and practices. Discourse can be either discursive or non-discursive. When it is discursive, it shows the structures, the faith expressions, organizations and observable elements. When it is nondiscursive, it reveals the resistance, the underlying structures, undercurrent faith beliefs and practices, worldviews and hidden interactions. An examination of the models leads to uncover how the movements of popular religiosity from below find its way towards faith empowerment, life’s meaning and even survival.
 References
 BooksCandelaria, Michael R. Popular Religion and Liberation: The Dilemma of Liberation Theology. New York: University of New York Press, 1990.
 Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge and the discourse on Language. Translated by A.M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.
 _________________. The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, translated by Alan Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon, 1973.
 _________________. The Order of Things: An Archeology of Human Sciences, unidentified collective translation New York: Pantheon, 1971.
 _________________. The Archaeology of Knowledge and the discourse on Language. Translated by A.M. Sheridan Smith. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972.
 _____________. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House Inc., 1977.
 _____________. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. London:Random House Inc., 1965.
 _____________. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Volume 1. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books, 1990
 _____________. “Two Lectures.” Critique and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Debate. Translated by Michael Kelly. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998.
 Galilea, Segundo. The Challenge of Popular Religiosity. Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 1988.
 Raas, Bernard. Popular Devotions. Manila: Divine Word Publications, 1992.
 Articles
 Bouritius, G.J.F. “Popular and Official Religion in Christianity: Three Cases in the 19th Century Europe”, Official and Popular Religion: Analysis of a Theme for Religious Studies. Edited by Pieter Hendrik Vrijhof and Jacques Waardenburg.New York: Mouton Publishers, 1979
 Frijhoff, M. “Official and Popular Religion in Christianity: The Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times (13th-18th Centuries)”, Official and Popular Religion: Analysis of a Theme for Religious Studies, edited by Pieter HendrikVrijhof and Jacques Waarddenburg. New York: Mouton Publishers, 1979.
 Internet Sources
 Catechism of the Catholic Church On-line Version: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
 Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. Catechism for Filipino Catholics.1997. Manila: ECCCE Word and Life Publications. On Line Version: https://chermercado.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/cfc-cbcp.pdf
 Defending the Bride. Proof that Catholics clearly teach to worship only God and not to worship Mary in http://www.defendingthebride.com/ma3/only18.html.
 Inquierer.net. Traslacion 2018 attracts 4million Black Nazarene Devotees in http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/958747/traslacion-2018-attracts-4-million-black-nazarene-devotees-black-nazarene-pnp-quiapo-metro-feast-traslacion-devotees.
 Manila Reviews, Devotion to the Black Nazarene, A Pastoral Understanding. MinorBasilica of the Black Nazarene Website, 2018 in http://www.quiapochurch.com/devotion-to-the-black-nazarene-a-pastoral-understanding/.

Crenças, Rezas e Louvores: Narrativas de Fé na Comunidade Matias, PB

Este texto, que sistematiza uma observação de cunho etnográfico, aponta tradições da religiosidade popular na Comunidade Matias, na Paraíba, destacando narrativas de alguns personagens locais de origem afrodescendente. A premissa da abordagem sugere que os rituais religiosos ressignificam os sentidos do sagrado e esses são reconstruídos e ressocializados tanto nos espaços rurais quanto nos urbanos. Contudo, no espaço rural, a oralidade e a comunicação interpessoal, atreladas às tradições e devoções, continuam eficazes na preservação de crenças e devoções que alimentam o catolicismo popular entre as gerações.

Salib Yesus – Penderitaan Maria Devosi Maria dalam Ibadat Jalan Salib Versi Solor-Lamaholot

Devotion to Mary is one of the most popular religious practices among Catholics, and can be considered one of the oldest forms of popular religiosity. Marian devotions emerged spontaneously as a mixture of elements from local cultures and the Christian faith. However, such practices can become problematic when they overstress certain aspects of human experience together with the role of Mary. This article discusses a text of "The Way of the Cross" which was composed in a dialect of the Lamaholot language as used on the isle of Solor, East Flores.
 
 Kata-kata kunci: devosi, jalan salib, penderitaan, ratapan, harapan

Cosmovisiones y prácticas ancestrales de los pastos para construir la paz regional

Este artículo (1) está orientado al análisis interpretativo de las cosmovisiones y prácticas ancestrales de los Pastos en torno a la pachamama, minga, religiosidad, cuento pastuso y carnaval de negros y blancos, con el objetivo de redimensionar sus aportes epistemológicos y pedagógicos en la construcción de la paz regional. En el marco del paradigma de investigación cualitativa y del enfoque etnográfico se emplearon las técnicas de observación participante, la entrevista en profundidad, las conversaciones informales y la revisión documental para la recolección de información. Se entrevistaron a seis docentes de la Universidad de Nariño, se observaron las prácticas socioculturales en cinco municipios de la región andina nariñense y se revisaron documentos, revistas y libros. Los resultados obtenidos son valiosos y pertinentes para: visibilizar el colectivismo productivo y económico; valorar la minga o manos prestadas base del tejido social; entender que la religiosidad popular guarda respeto sagrado a la naturaleza, al absoluto y al prójimo; comprender que el humor es risa, alegría, esparcimiento y felicidad; y que el carnaval es una fiesta mestiza, pluriétnica e intercultural.(1) Proyecto de Tesis Doctoral, “Aportes étnico-culturales y educativos de docentes de la Universidad de Nariño para construir la paz en el postconflicto”, en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de Granada, España.

Los estudios sobre magia en Hispania romana desde el cambio de era (2000-2016)

Resumen: Se revisan en este artículo las tendencias interpretativas que ha habido en los estudios sobre magia en la Península Ibérica en las últimas décadas. Si bien hubo un interés germinal en estas cuestiones durante los años 60, la atención hacia las cuestiones relacionadas con la magia en Hispania eclosionó en los años 80. Aún hay cierta tendencia a plantear la magia como una forma de religiosidad popular o como una forma de enfrentamiento al orden establecido pero, en términos generales, la interpretación de las fuentes está siguiendo caminos similares al panorama internacional, marcado desde los años 90 por la ruptura de la diferenciación tacita entre magia y religión.Palabras clave: Defixiones, Cultura popular, filacterias, Begriffsgeschichte, Resistencia, Poder Ritual.Abstract: This paper analyses the interpretative trends of recent decades in the study of magic in the Iberian Peninsula. Although early interest in the topic hatched during the 1960s, the study of magic in Hispania did not become fully fledged until the 1980s. Today there is still a certain tendency towards the interpretation of magic as a form of popular religiosity or as a deviation from the established order, but generally speaking the current interpretation of the sources from Hispania now follows the track originating with the 1990s paradigm-shift, where magic is no longer considered tacitly different to religion.Key words: Defixiones, Popular Culture, Phylacteries, Begriffsgeschichte, Resistance, Ritual Power.

The Spirit, the Affections, and the Christian Tradition ed. by Dale M. Coulter and Amos Yong

Reviewed by: The Spirit, the Affections, and the Christian Tradition ed. by Dale M. Coulter and Amos Yong Tom Schwanda (bio) The Spirit, the Affections, and the Christian Tradition, edited by Dale M. Coulter and Amos Yong. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016. 326pp. $60.00 (hard-cover). This stimulating volume is bookended by contributions from the two editors. Dale Coulter, associate professor of historical theology at Regent University (VA), provides an introductory chapter that orients the reader while Amos Yong, professor of theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, completes this study with suggestions for additional research. The marrow of this book contains twelve chapters that offer a chronological tour of the study of affections from the patristic period to the eighteenth century. The stated goal is to create a "renewal historiographic lens" through the study of affectivity (1). This focus, reflective of the history of Pentecostalism, includes an appreciation for and recovery of "popular religiosity" and "folk theologies" (2). In consideration of the vocabulary of affectivity the authors in this collection stress the distinction between affectivity and emotion (essentially a later development at the beginning of the nineteenth century), whereby the affections are deeper in nature and more connected with the will. Within this dynamic conversation, the passions, which have often been understood as diseases of the soul, are also examined. The Holy Spirit is operative throughout this discussion as the "intersection between divine affectivity and human affectivity" (7). The first three chapters explore affectivity through the patristic writers of the Christian East and West. Robert Louis Wilken provides a succinct treatment of Origen's, Gregory of Nyssa's, and Maximus the Confessor's writings on love [End Page 280] that highlight the interplay between agape and eros. Wilken summarizes the early understanding that "Knowledge without passion does not bind one to God" (37). James K. A. Smith engages Augustine's critical assessment of the theater and demonstrates how it can be redeemed to recover a richer exposition of affectivity through the action of the Holy Spirit. Bradley Nassif deftly examines the deification of passions through St. John Chrysostom's Divine Liturgy. Central to his argument is how baptism, the Eucharist, Scripture, icons and dogmatic hymns (Nassif's language) form the affections of the worshiper. Nassif helpfully grounds this through the theological foundation of union with Christ and the Holy Spirit. Michael J. McClymond's expansive chapter employs holy tears as the lens through which affectivity can be studied in both the East and West and from the patristic era to the present. He concludes this fascinating chapter by asserting, "Unless we weep and grieve, we will never experience the deep joy that God offers" (103). The next three chapters concentrate on the medieval period. First, Elizabeth A. Dreyer reviews the contribution of Hadewijch of Brabant's bridal mysticism, elevating the topic of sacred eros, and Bonaventure's emphasis on Christ's humanity, revealed through his wounds of love. In both cases the affections are elevated in ecstatic delight. Next, Craig A. Boyd merges Aquinas's dual themes of desire and appetite with love and charity. He asserts that the human freedom of expressing affections must be guided by the rational soul that is always held accountable for those desires. Sharon L. Putt concludes this trilogy of medieval chapters with her study of detachment in Meister Eckhart. His treatment of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38–42) reverses the frequent tendency of elevating Mary. Instead Martha's detachment creates greater approbation since she "represents the perfection of a life of action born from contemplation" (173). The next cluster of chapters surveys three representatives of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Simeon Zahl explores Luther's famous principle of the bondage of the will and perceives parallels to the bondage of affections. Significantly, Zahl reminds readers that to focus only upon the affections restricts the much broader spectrum of Luther's vocabulary, including desire, voluntas (usually rendered as "will"), and the heart. Building on the centrality of the heart, Zahl corrects the mistaken impression that Luther, not John Wesley, was the originator of "heart religion" (199). In his chapter on Blaise Pascal, Klaas Bom continues with the priority of the...