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Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires
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Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2024) | Viewed by 5855

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Dana Bultman

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Romance Languages, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Interests: premodern Spain; treatises; conduct books; lyric poetry; franciscan studies, class & gender; works by and about women; Baroque aesthetics
Dr. Dale Shuger

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Spanish and Portuguese, School of Liberal Arts, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Interests: early modern Spanish literature; early modern Spanish, history, Inquisition and legal history in Spain and colonial Latin America

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The fifteenth century Spanish and Portuguese voyages of territorial expansion initiated “the violent destruction of old social and metaphysical bonds which tied people to one another and to the world around them in order to bind them to new masters who were appropriating for themselves both legal and sovereign power” (Marika Rose). The rise of empires, nation states, identities and social power relations also hinged on the emergence of a new definition of Western Man. Sylvia Wynter has described this definition in Unsettling the Coloniality of Being as arising from a process in which the European laity wrested power from the clergy over words and symbolic representations.

This Special Issue aims to examine efforts to push against the developing global organizing principle of racialized Western Man as well as against the dominant Counter Reformation narrative of divinely sanctioned imperial expansion. We are pleased to invite you to contribute studies of contestatory religious culture from the Iberian peninsula and Spanish and Portuguese colonial worlds that examine the relationship between theology and aesthetics. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Definitions of artistry and creativity; discourses of beauty, vision, imagination, and/or the senses; theological understandings of living material and the natural world.
  • Islamic, Jewish, or Indigenous theological perspectives; conceptions of the human; religious subjectivities; distinctions between clergy and laity and/or between secular and sacred; oppositional or minority theological discourses and aesthetics within Catholic practices.
  • Emancipatory theological aesthetics; relationships between embodied ceremony and ritual and discourses of freedom and autonomy; conceptions of Original Sin; the metaphysics of punishment; spiritual purity and perfection.
  • Strategies of translation: between languages, religious practices, and/or ontological frameworks. Strategies of reading and writing: adaptation, translation, resignification. Rethinking the notions and practices of making and interpreting signs: beyond “reading” and “writing” texts.

Prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors should submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editors ([email protected] and [email protected]) or to the Assistant Editor, Ms. Joyce Xi ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Dana Bultman
Dr. Dale Shuger
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Iberia
  • Spanish empire
  • Portuguese empire
  • colonial Latin America
  • early modern
  • Aesthetics
  • counter reformation
  • oppositional theology

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 281 KiB  
Article
Maternal Practice and the Chuetas of Mallorca: The Inquisitorial Trials of Pedro Onofre Cortés
by Emily Colbert Cairns
Religions 2024, 15(5), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050561 - 30 Apr 2024
Viewed by 189
Abstract
In the inquisitorial archive of Pedro Onofre Cortés, alias Moixina, we see fellow practitioner protesting his son’s marriage to Clara Sureda because she was an Old Christian. The poor match was blamed on the breast milk that was ingested as an infant, “andaba [...] Read more.
In the inquisitorial archive of Pedro Onofre Cortés, alias Moixina, we see fellow practitioner protesting his son’s marriage to Clara Sureda because she was an Old Christian. The poor match was blamed on the breast milk that was ingested as an infant, “andaba con cristianos porque había mamado leche de una mujer cristiana” (he went with Christians because of the milk drunk milk from a Christian woman) (Picazo y Muntaner). In early modern Spain, breastmilk was seen as responsible for transmitting virtues and vices, religious expressions of faith and moral traits. Following Galenic medical understanding equating milk with blood, it was women who were responsible for the transmission of purity, impurity (Alexandre-Bidon 175), for contamination and difference (Martínez 47). This brief citation reflects the hybrid environment and the dual practices that deeply informed the lives of the converso Jews. Moreover, the understanding of the hereditary nature of these traits, and the traditions of Judaism and Christianity, so often mixed in unique combinations are clearly demonstrated in the Inquisition trials of Cortés and his Chueta brethren. As regulation over the mother and the female body became increasingly important in controlling Iberian subjects and its empire, conversos complicate the feminization of impurity. This article explores how the conversos known as the Chuetas of Mallorca understood their religiosity and difference as seen through the lens of hybridity, breast milk and maternal care. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
12 pages, 259 KiB  
Article
Early Modern Imperial Philologies: Ahmad al-Hajarî and the Lead Books of Granada
by Oumelbanine Zhiri
Religions 2024, 15(4), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040428 - 29 Mar 2024
Viewed by 466
Abstract
The Morisco polymath Ahmad ibn Qâsim al-Hajarî (c.1569–c.1640) was a diplomat, writer and translator. His engagement with philology, i.e., the edition, annotation and translation of texts, especially the Lead Books of Granada, is an important part of his work. This article examines his [...] Read more.
The Morisco polymath Ahmad ibn Qâsim al-Hajarî (c.1569–c.1640) was a diplomat, writer and translator. His engagement with philology, i.e., the edition, annotation and translation of texts, especially the Lead Books of Granada, is an important part of his work. This article examines his philological practices and how he deployed them in order to defend Islam and Islamic powers, and to counter the hegemonic claims of the Spanish Catholic Empire. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
23 pages, 621 KiB  
Article
Morisco Catechisms: Religious Incorporation and Differentiation in Early Modern Spain
by Claire Gilbert
Religions 2024, 15(4), 420; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040420 - 28 Mar 2024
Viewed by 769
Abstract
In the debate over the theory and practice of the Spanish empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century, political, religious, and legal discourses differentiated conquered peoples and recent converts to Christianity from so-called “old Christians”, thereby creating distinct categories of Spanish subjects. [...] Read more.
In the debate over the theory and practice of the Spanish empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century, political, religious, and legal discourses differentiated conquered peoples and recent converts to Christianity from so-called “old Christians”, thereby creating distinct categories of Spanish subjects. In Spain itself, cultural markers like language, dress, and diet became the foundations of fiscal and legal differences, while normative codes were promulgated and negotiated across a range of documents, e.g., legal instruments, civic and ecclesiastical records, university debates, and juridical theory. Concomitant with this process, a set of Christian catechisms was produced in Spain, both before and after the promulgation of Tridentine reforms, that were directed especially at the converted morisco populations in Granada and Valencia. These catechisms were produced in Iberian Arabic and Romance languages and included instructions about how new converts from Islam should behave, as well as what they should believe in order to participate in liturgical activities and to be recognized as full members of the Christian community. This article examines the morisco catechisms produced in Spain between 1496 and 1566, as these documents are representative of a unique period in both the history of Latin Christianity and the burgeoning Spanish empire. Through the emergence of this corpus and against the backdrop of targeted legislation and new policies aimed at Arabic-speaking moriscos, first in Granada and later in Valencia, the ideological foundations constraining the morisco experience were forged. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
16 pages, 322 KiB  
Article
The Catechism through Andean Eyes: Reflections on Post-Tridentine Reform in Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s Comentarios reales
by John Charles
Religions 2024, 15(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15010014 (registering DOI) - 21 Dec 2023
Viewed by 658
Abstract
The depiction of Andean religion in the Comentarios reales de los incas (1609, 1617) has centered on Garcilaso de la Vega’s providential interpretation of Inca pagan governance and the influence of the Christian humanist traditions that he mastered as an adult in Spain. [...] Read more.
The depiction of Andean religion in the Comentarios reales de los incas (1609, 1617) has centered on Garcilaso de la Vega’s providential interpretation of Inca pagan governance and the influence of the Christian humanist traditions that he mastered as an adult in Spain. However, scholars have not adequately recognized his attention to the ecclesiastical debates regarding the persistence of Inca cult beliefs and practices in the colonial Andean society of his day. This paper examines a new source for understanding the chronicler’s portrayal of Inca religion, the catechisms and canon decrees of South America’s definitive post-Tridentine assembly, the Third Provincial Council of Lima (1582–1583), which established the Church’s official stance on the fundamental “idolatry” of Inca morality and ritual customs and the need for their extirpation. It will be argued that Garcilaso’s knowledge of natural and canon law provided the basis for his defense of the Incas’ religion and justice system and his criticisms of the anti-Inca tenor of the council’s directives on Andean custom and intercultural dialogue. The chronicler’s response to the council’s pronouncements on the ritual of penance, in particular, offers novel insights about the indigenous reception of the Church’s missionary regime within an orthodox and culturally-integrated vision for Andean Christianity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
21 pages, 2864 KiB  
Article
The Canonization of St Francis Xavier in Spanish Habsburg Lands: A Poetry Challenge in Madrid, Sacristy Paintings by André Reinoso in Lisbon and an Altarpiece by Pieter Pawel Rubens in Antwerp
by Jean Andrews
Religions 2023, 14(12), 1505; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121505 - 05 Dec 2023
Viewed by 936
Abstract
This article examines Jesuit representation of the exploits of Francis Xavier, ‘the Apostle of the East’, in celebration of his canonization in 1622 and in the Jesuit campaign to have him canonized prior to that. Pageants in Madrid, Lisbon and Antwerp are examined, [...] Read more.
This article examines Jesuit representation of the exploits of Francis Xavier, ‘the Apostle of the East’, in celebration of his canonization in 1622 and in the Jesuit campaign to have him canonized prior to that. Pageants in Madrid, Lisbon and Antwerp are examined, along with prior pictorial depictions of Francis’ miracles and activities, taking into account the gulf between the political realities of proselytization in the Portuguese territories of influence in the East and the hagiography of 1622. The work of Rubens, the Portuguese painter André Reinoso and three Spanish Golden Age poet/playwrights are analyzed, exploring variance in the application of a universal Jesuit aesthetic founded on the melding of the Classical and the Catholic in response to the local conditions for which each ephemeral event and work of art were produced. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
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19 pages, 333 KiB  
Article
His Body Will Appear in All of the Mirrors: Explaining Christian Doctrine to the Nahuas in the 1548 Doctrina Christiana
by Katarzyna Granicka
Religions 2023, 14(12), 1487; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14121487 - 29 Nov 2023
Viewed by 930
Abstract
After the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the first groups of friars arrived in Mexico to Christianize the native inhabitants of Mesoamerica. This task was anything but easy, as explaining Christian doctrine to the Indigenous people posed both a linguistic and a theological [...] Read more.
After the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the first groups of friars arrived in Mexico to Christianize the native inhabitants of Mesoamerica. This task was anything but easy, as explaining Christian doctrine to the Indigenous people posed both a linguistic and a theological challenge. The need to learn Indigenous languages and to prepare doctrinal materials dedicated specifically to the Christianization of this land was a task that might have seemed almost impossible to conduct in a short period of time, yet by the 1540s, the first printed catechisms (doctrinas) in Nahuatl began to appear. One of the earliest and broadest of these works is the 1548 Dominican Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Española y Mexicana, in which the friars attempted to explain all of the principles of Catholic theology to the Indigenous people. This paper analyses how through highly detailed descriptions and a meticulous choice of vocabulary, the authors strove to impart the tenets of Christian doctrine to the Nahuas in such a way as to make it both fully understandable and as unlikely as possible to be misinterpreted. It points to the sources on which the friars relied while writing the text. The article formulates a theory that the creation of the Doctrina Christiana would not have been possible without the participation of the native speakers of Nahuatl in the project, even though their role in writing the catechism would have had to be hidden from the religious authorities. The Indigenous authors served as cross-cultural bridges in the process of preparing the doctrinal materials. On the one hand, they could therefore help to explain crucial parts of the doctrine to the Indigenous audience. On the other hand, allowing Indigenous concepts to permeate the Christian discourse often led to the creation of ambiguity and provided a space of contestation that could influence the understanding of the Catholic concepts by the Indigenous audience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
16 pages, 335 KiB  
Article
Ventriloquial Acts in Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda’s Mística Ciudad de Dios
by Rosilie Hernández
Religions 2023, 14(11), 1432; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111432 - 16 Nov 2023
Viewed by 972
Abstract
Sor María de Ágreda (1602–1665), a Franciscan nun and Abbess of the Conceptionist monastery at Ágreda, was a prolific writer whose theological works are yet to be extensively studied. In this article, I examine the practice of divine ventriloquism in Sor María’s mystical [...] Read more.
Sor María de Ágreda (1602–1665), a Franciscan nun and Abbess of the Conceptionist monastery at Ágreda, was a prolific writer whose theological works are yet to be extensively studied. In this article, I examine the practice of divine ventriloquism in Sor María’s mystical (auto)biography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, Mística ciudad de Dios (1670). I aim to examine the complexity inherent in Sor María’s ‘unmediated’ ventriloquizing of sacred voices and the positionality and power appropriated through this act. The argument focuses on the use of the ventriloquial mechanism, its relationship to Sor María’s authorial position, and how readers may conceptualize the production and reception of the sacred voice. The textual perforance with which readers are presented in Mística ciudad de Dios provides a rich example of how women religious writers appropriated divine authority, resulting in a complex position of agency and self-fashioned individuality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
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