Synopses & Reviews
Ever since its appearance in Europe five centuries ago, the rosary has been a widespread, highly visible devotion among Roman Catholics. Its popularity has persisted despite centuries of often seismic social upheaval, cultural change, and institutional reform. In form, the rosary consists of a ritually repeated sequence of prayers accompanied by meditations on episodes in the lives of Christ and Mary. As a devotional object of round beads strung on cord or wire, the rosary has changed very little since its introduction centuries ago. Today, the rosary can be found on virtually every continent, and in the hands of hard-line traditionalists as well as progressive Catholics. It is beloved by popes, professors, protesters, commuters on their way to work, children learning their “first prayers,” and homeless persons seeking shelter and safety.
Why has this particular devotional object been so ubiquitous and resilient, especially in the face of Catholicisms reinvention in the Early Modern, or “Counter-Reformation,” Era? Nathan D. Mitchell argues in lyric prose that to understand the rosarys adaptability, it is essential to consider the changes Catholicism itself began to experience in the aftermath of the Reformation.
Unlike many other scholars of this period, Mitchell argues that after the Reformation Catholicism actually became more innovative and diversified rather than retrenched and monolithic. This innovation was especially evident in the sometimes “subversive”; visual representations of sacred subjects, such as in the paintings of Caravaggio, and in new ways of perceiving the relation between Catholic devotion and the liturgys ritual symbols. The rosary was thus involved not only in how Catholics gave flesh to their faith, but in new ways of constructing their personal and collective identity. Ultimately, Mitchell employs the history of the rosary, and the concomitant devotion to the Virgin Mary with which it is associated, as a lens through which to better understand early modern Catholic history.
Review
“In this truly remarkable work, from both scholarly and practical perspectives, Mitchell clearly articulates the central role of a unique devotion in the life of the Roman Catholic Church. . . . In providing a solid historical foundation, Mitchell also shows how art, liturgy, and ritual have influenced and been influenced by this prayer over the past five centuries.”
- Library Journal
Review
“In this dazzling venture in ‘reframing, what could have been a nostalgic revisiting of a traditional devotion has, instead, been rendered a masterful reflection on Catholic identity and imagination. With all the prowess of an accomplished scholar, the ear of a poet, and the soul of an artist, Nathan Mitchell leads us from Caravaggio to Rahner, Erasmus to Vatican II with singular aplomb and dexterity. This case study in early modern Catholicism will reshape your understanding of post-Tridentine Catholicism, as well as the powerful Marian devotion which helped transform it.”
- Edward Foley, Catholic Theological Union
Review
"Mitchell (Univ. of Notre Dame) offers a valuable new addition to his corpus of work on bottom-up Catholic spirituality and its attendant sense of spiritual mystery. Here he provides and insightful reframing of Catholic identity after the Council of Trent, demonstrating how very soon after the Council's rigorously magisterial Counter-Reformation agenda ended, a new and overlooked sense of Catholic spirituality emerged during the late 16th and 17th centuries."
“In this truly remarkable work, from both scholarly and practical perspectives, Mitchell clearly articulates the central role of a unique devotion in the life of the Roman Catholic Church. . . . In providing a solid historical foundation, Mitchell also shows how art, liturgy, and ritual have influenced and been influenced by this prayer over the past five centuries.”
“In this dazzling venture in ‘reframing,’ what could have been a nostalgic revisiting of a traditional devotion has, instead, been rendered a masterful reflection on Catholic identity and imagination. With all the prowess of an accomplished scholar, the ear of a poet, and the soul of an artist, Nathan Mitchell leads us from Caravaggio to Rahner, Erasmus to Vatican II with singular aplomb and dexterity. This case study in early modern Catholicism will reshape your understanding of post-Tridentine Catholicism, as well as the powerful Marian devotion which helped transform it.”
“Mitchell has demonstrated that religion is sustained and communicated not primarily by creeds and dogmatic statements, but by art and architecture as well as by other symbols, rituals, stories, myths and metaphors. This book sheds much needed light on the contemporary Catholic Church. . . . The brilliant discussion of Caravaggio’s work alone is worth the price of the book!”
“Mitchell draws upon contemporary historical scholarship, as well as the pioneering work of an older generation of historians like H. Outram-Evennett and John Bossy, to demonstrate the positive and innovative side of the Counter-Reformation, an aspect that he says came to the surface especially in the quarter century between 1585 and 1610.”
Review
“Mitchell draws upon contemporary historical scholarship, as well as the pioneering work of an older generation of historians like H. Outram-Evennett and John Bossy, to demonstrate the positive and innovative side of the Counter-Reformation, an aspect that he says came to the surface especially in the quarter century between 1585 and 1610.”-America: The National Catholic Weekly,
Review
and#8220;Anne M. Martand#237;nezand#8217;s narrative encompasses the interrelation between various forces in motion: the Mexican Revolution and church-state tensions, activism of Mexican Catholics and government agents, initiatives of Bishop Francis Kelley and other U.S. Catholic leaders, responses of U.S. political officials, and intervention by the Vatican. Such a broad international approach sets
Catholic Borderlands apart from previous studies and generates the bookand#8217;s compelling analysis.and#8221;and#8212;Timothy Matovina, author of
Latino Catholicism: Transformation in Americaand#8217;s Largest Churchand#160;
Review
and#8220;Catholic Borderlands explores U.S. Catholic intellectualsand#8217; response to the Mexican Revolution and its anticlerical campaigns through the career of Father Francis C. Kelley. By documenting the many problems and contradictions of [Kelleyand#8217;s] campaign for greater U.S. intervention in Mexican affairs, Anne Martand#237;nez is able to chart the success (and failure) of religion as a motivator in foreign policy while questioning the degree to which that religion transcends national boundaries and cultures. . . . Martand#237;nez spins a captivating and important tale.and#8221;and#8212;Terry Rugeley, author of Rebellion Now and Forever: Mayas, Hispanics, and Caste War Violence in Yucatand#225;n, 1800and#8211;1880
Review
andquot;Catholic Borderlands should be read by anyone teaching or doing research in American religious history.andquot;andmdash;Ann Swaner, Catholic Books Review
Review
andquot;Martinez does not disappoint in exploring, explaining and answering where we have been.andquot;andmdash;Brian T. Olszewski, Pilot
Review
andquot;Future scholars of US empire, American religion, and American studies more broadly would do well do draw on the findings of this important work.andquot;andmdash;Katherine Moran, H-SHGAPE
Synopsis
Few questions of history have as many contemporary political implications as this deceptively simple one: how did capitalism come to be?
In this clarifying work, Ellen Meiksins Wood refutes most existing accounts of the origin of capitalism, which, she argues, fail to recognize capitalism's distinctive attributes as a social system, making it seem a culmination of a natural human inclination to sell and buy.
Wood begins with searching assessments of classical thinkers ranging from Adam Smith to Max Weber. She then explores the great Marxist debates among writers such as Paul Sweezy, Maurice Dobb, Robert Brenner, Perry Anderson, and E. P. Thompson. She concludes with her own account of capitalism's agrarian origin, challenging the association of capitalism with cities, the identification of "capitalist" with "bourgeois," and conceptions of modernity and postmodernity derived from those assumptions.
Only with a proper understanding of capitalism's beginning, Wood concludes, can we imagine the possibility of it ending.
Synopsis
In 1905 Rev. Francis Clement Kelley founded the Catholic Church Extension Society of the United States of America. Drawing attention to the common link of religion, Kelley proclaimed the Extension Societyand#8217;s duty to be that of preventing American Protestant missionaries, public school teachers, and others from separating people from their natural faith, Catholicism. Though domestic evangelization was its founding purpose, the Extension Society eventually expanded beyond the national border into Mexico in an attempt to solidify a hemispheric Catholic identity.
and#160;
Exploring international, racial, and religious implications, Anne M. Martand#237;nezand#8217;s Catholic Borderlands examines Kelleyand#8217;s life and actions, including events at the beginning of the twentieth century that prompted four exiled Mexican archbishops to seek refuge with the Archdiocese of Chicago and befriend Kelley. This relationship inspired Kelley to solidify a commitment to expanding Catholicism in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in response to the national plan of Protestantization, which was indiscreetly being labeled as and#8220;Americanization.and#8221; Kelleyand#8217;s cause intensified as the violence of the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero Rebellion reverberated across national borders. Kelleyand#8217;s work with the U.S. Catholic Church to intervene in Mexico helped transfer cultural ownership of Mexico from Spain to the United States, thus signaling that Catholics were considered not foreigners but heirs to the land of their Catholic forefathers.
and#160;
About the Author
Ellen Meiksins Wood is co-editor of Monthly Review; author of many books, including The Pristine Culture of Capitalism (1991) and Democracy Against Capitalism (1995); and co-editor of In Defense of History (1995).