Title: Christian texts for Aztecs : art and liturgy in colonial Mexico /
Authors: Lara, Jaime, 1947-
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Catholic Church Missions Mexico History.; Aztecs Missions.; Aztecs Religion; Missions, Spanish Mexico History.; Liturgical adaptation.; Christianity and culture Mexico.
Abstract: "Christian Texts for Aztecs: Art and Liturgy in Colonial Mexico is a cultural history of the missionary enterprise in sixteenth-century Mexico, seen primarily through the work of Catholic missionaries and the native populations, principally the Aztecs. Jaime Lara's new work addresses the inculturation of Catholic sacraments and sacramentals into an Aztec worldview in visual and material terms. He argues that the pre-Tridentine Catholic liturgy - similar in some ways to pre-Hispanic worship - effectively "conquered" the religious imagination of its new Mesoamerican practitioners, thus creating the basis for a uniquely Mexican Catholicism."--Jacket.
Contents: Mission and liturgy -- Liturgical reforms: the eve of the contact -- Preaching: the attractive art of conversion -- Worship in New Spain: The Indian sacraments -- Worship in New Spain: other sacraments and devotions -- Processional liturgy: the witness of the feet -- Corpus Christi: the sun of God -- Liturgical toys: puppets, props, and the proscenium -- Holy blood: the rehabilitation of human sacrifice -- Inculturation in word and worship.