Mark Z Christensen
Biographic Data
| ID | 476783 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark Z Christensen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark Z |
| FAMILY NAME | Christensen |
| SIGNATURE | CHRISTENSEN M Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Child Martyrs and Militant Evangelization in New Spain: Missionary Narratives, Nahua Perspectives
The Historian's Craft: Creating the Past in Colonial Latin America
This essay reviews the following works:Unlocking the Doors to the Worlds of Guaman Poma and His Nueva corónica. Edited by Rolena Adorno and Ivan Boserup. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2015. Pp. 483. $120.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781107129030
The Chilam Balam of Ixil: Facsimile and Study of an Unpublished Maya Book
This study continues to demonstrate why the Books of Chilam Balam rank among the most significant writings produced by Indigenous people and are extremely valuable in the study of the Maya. Authored and preserved throughout the colonial period by literate Maya, the books contain a potpourri of subjects ranging from medicinal remedies, to local histories, to Christian texts. As technically forbidden compilations, these books offer scholars rare in…
Accounting for Animal Welfare: Addressing Epistemic Vices During Live Sheep Export Voyages
Maya militia: The defense and government of colonial Ixil, Yucatan
To the westward of Telchac, 9 miles, is a lookout tower, and a rancho of a few huts, named Yxil in a grove of cocoanut [sic] trees.W.W. Gillpatrick, U.S.N., 18851 The road from the town of Ixil is
Return to Ixil: Maya Society in an Eighteenth-century Yucatec Town
An examination of 100+ previously unstudied colonial-era Maya wills from the Yucatec town of Ixil. These testaments--some of the only surviving documentation of colonial inhabitation--offer unprecedented depictions of material and spiritual life from 1738 to 1779 and are rare and rich resources of Maya language.--Provided by publisher
To Heaven or to Hell: "Bartolomé de Las Casas's "Confesionario
Today, the name Bartolomé de Las Casas is synonymous with native rights, largely due to his widely popular Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias, which details the horrors that Spaniards committed in the Americas. Yet the friar produced many other works that provide additional insight into his views on Spanish colonization and his vision for how to best evangelize the natives. One such work is his Confesionario, which David Thomas Or…
The Burden of the Ancients: Maya Ceremonies of World Renewal from the Pre-Columbian Period to the Present
For years scholars have observed the ability of the Maya to continue traditions and rituals connecting them to their historical past. As the title of Allen Christenson's most recent work states, in many ways the contemporary Maya bear “the burden of the ancients,” particularly in their ceremonies of world renewal. Christenson's work among the Guatemalan Maya stems from his extensive fieldwork and knowledge of the languages, including K'iche’ and …
La transmisíon de conceptos cristianos a las lenguas amerindias
Ever since Robert Ricard’s 1933 Conquête spirituelle du Mexique, the conversion of the natives of the Americas has captured the attention of scholars seeking to understand the evangelization process, its successes, failures, and limits. The use of native-language texts in this historiography has been around for a few decades now, but it continues to hold great promise in enlightening our understanding of how missionaries brought Catholicism to th…
The Teabo Manuscript: Maya Christian Copybooks, Chilam Balams, and Native Text Production in Yucatán
Among the surviving documents from the colonial period in Mexico are rare Maya-authored manuscript compilations of Christian texts, translated and adapted into the Maya language and worldview, which were used to evangelize the local population. The Morely Manuscript is well known to scholars, and now The Teabo Manuscript introduces an additional example of what Mark Z. Christensen terms a Maya Christian copybook. Recently discovered in the archiv…
Recent Approaches in Understanding Evangelization in New Spain
This article surveys scholarship on the evangelization of the natives of New Spain that challenge the myths and assumptions behind a “spiritual conquest.” Aided by native‐language sources and armed with a more critical reading of those Spanish, contemporary works debunk many myths associated with the spiritual conquest including those advocating a complete and finished conversion, the dominant role of the Spanish clergy, and a monolithic view of …
Maya Lords and Lordships: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350-1600
Book Review| January 01 2016 Maya Lords and Lordships: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350–1600 Maya Lords and Lordships: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350–1600. By Quezada, Sergio. Translated by Rugeley, Terry. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. vii + 248 pp., preface, introduction, appendixes, glossary, bibliography, index. $34.95 cloth.) Mark Christensen Mark Christensen Search for other works by this …
Native Wills from the Colonial Americas: Dead Giveaways in a New World
"Native Wills from the Colonial Americas showcases new testamentary sources from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It provides readers with translations and analyses of wills written in Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya, K’iche’ Maya, Mixtec, and Wampanoag. Divided into three thematic sections, the book provides insights and details that further our understanding of indigenous life in the Americas under colonial rule. Part One employs testa…
Steven E. Turley. Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524–1599: Conflict beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19: 1–10)
Journal Article Steven E. Turley. Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524–1599: Conflict beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19: 1–10). Get access Steven E. Turley. Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524–1599: Conflict beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19: 1–10). (Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700.) Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2014. Pp. x, 202. $119.95. Mark Christensen Mark Christensen Assumption College mz.ch…
Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes: Insights from Archaeology, History, and Ethnography
In this well-documented and illustrated work, Joel Palka further exposes the important role that pilgrimages to ritual landscapes play in Maya culture. To do so, Palka draws upon an impressive interdisciplinary array of data from archaeological, historical, and ethnographic studies to illustrate the continued importance of such pilgrimages and landscapes in Maya culture — and those Mesoamerican in general — from Preclassic to modern times. Wherea…
Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance
Book Review| January 01 2015 Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance. Edited by Megged, Amos and Wood, Stephanie. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. v + 320 pp., illustrations, introduction, bibliography, index. $55.00 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Christensen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2015) 62 (1): 171–172. https://doi…
Translated Christianities: Nahuatl and Maya Religious Texts
"English translations of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts, including sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals. Includes commentary examining the various Christianities presented to the colonial Aztec (Nahua) and Yucatec Maya, the origins and purpose of the texts, and their authors and the messages they intended to convey"--Provided by publisher.
Translated Christianities: Nahuatl and Maya Religious Texts
Beginning in the sixteenth century, ecclesiastics and others created religious texts written in the native languages of the Nahua and Yucatec Maya. These texts played an important role in the evangelization of central Mexico and Yucatan. Translated Christianities is the first book to provide readers with English translations of a variety of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts. It pulls Nahuatl and Maya sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals o…
Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Texts and Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan
Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Texts and Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan
This book examines ecclesiastical texts written in Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya to illustrate their role in conveying and reflecting various Catholic messages—and thus Catholicisms—throughout colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan. It demonstrates how published and unpublished sermons, confessional manuals, catechisms, and other religious texts betray "official" and "unofficial" versions of Catholicism, and how these versions changed throughout the colo…
The Teabo Manuscript
Among the surviving documents from the colonial period in Mexico are rare Maya-authored manuscript compilations of Christian texts, translated and adapted into the Maya language and worldview, which were used to evangelize the local population. The Morely Manuscript is well known to scholars, and now The Teabo Manuscript introduces an additional example of what Mark Z. Christensen terms a Maya Christian copybook. Recently discovered in the archiv…
Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature
Book Review| October 01 2013 Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature. Edited by Hull, Kerry M. and Carrasco, Michael D.. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012. ix + 493 pp., illustrations, introduction, glossary, contributors, index. $85.00 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Ch…
Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis
Book Review| April 01 2013 Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis. By Early, John D.. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. vii + 499 pp., illustrations, tables, preface, abbreviations, bibliography, index. $74.95 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Christensen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2013) 60 (2): 337–338. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2074315 Cite …
The Use of Nahuatl in Evangelization and the Ministry of Sebastian
Nahuatl played an essential role in the evangelization of Central Mexico. Although the crown and its appointed officials vacillated between the use of Nahuatl and Spanish in teaching the Christian doctrine, the majority of ecclesiastics supported the use of Nahuatl, particularly in the composition of religious texts. Examining a Nahuatl sermon on the ministry of St. Sebastian, this article illustrates the necessity of Nahuatl in evangelization wh…
The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian Europe
Book Review| January 01 2011 The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian Europe By Jonathan Boyarin. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. vix + 192 pp., preface, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $32.50 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Christensen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2011) 58 (1): 172–173. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2010-080 Cite Icon Cite Share I…
Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Texts and Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan
This book examines ecclesiastical texts written in Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya to illustrate their role in conveying and reflecting various Catholic messages—and thus Catholicisms—throughout colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan. It demonstrates how published and unpublished sermons, confessional manuals, catechisms, and other religious texts betray "official" and "unofficial" versions of Catholicism, and how these versions changed throughout the colo…
The Use of Nahuatl in Evangelization and the Ministry of Sebastian
Nahuatl played an essential role in the evangelization of Central Mexico. Although the crown and its appointed officials vacillated between the use of Nahuatl and Spanish in teaching the Christian doctrine, the majority of ecclesiastics supported the use of Nahuatl, particularly in the composition of religious texts. Examining a Nahuatl sermon on the ministry of St. Sebastian, this article illustrates the necessity of Nahuatl in evangelization wh…
Accounting for Animal Welfare: Addressing Epistemic Vices During Live Sheep Export Voyages
The Teabo Manuscript
Among the surviving documents from the colonial period in Mexico are rare Maya-authored manuscript compilations of Christian texts, translated and adapted into the Maya language and worldview, which were used to evangelize the local population. The Morely Manuscript is well known to scholars, and now The Teabo Manuscript introduces an additional example of what Mark Z. Christensen terms a Maya Christian copybook. Recently discovered in the archiv…
The Tales of Two Cultures: Ecclesiastical Texts and Nahua and Maya Catholicisms
[Priests should use] ... an abbreviated catechism, scrupulously extracted from the Roman one so that the faithful receive the pure and sound Doctrine of the Church with uniformity and with the authority accordant to the Provincial Council ... therefore, with luck, random works destitute of legitimate authority and revision in matters so grave will not circulate such important material. When in the late eighteenth century the prelates of the Fourt…
The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian Europe
Book Review| January 01 2011 The Unconverted Self: Jews, Indians, and the Identity of Christian Europe By Jonathan Boyarin. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. vix + 192 pp., preface, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $32.50 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Christensen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2011) 58 (1): 172–173. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2010-080 Cite Icon Cite Share I…
Framing the Sacred: The Indian Churches of Early Colonial Mexico / Indigenous Miracles: Nahua Authority in Colonial Mexico
Book Review| October 01 2011 Framing the Sacred: The Indian Churches of Early Colonial Mexico / Indigenous Miracles: Nahua Authority in Colonial Mexico Framing the Sacred: The Indian Churches of Early Colonial Mexico. By Wake, Eleanor. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. $65.00 cloth.)Indigenous Miracles: Nahua Authority in Colonial Mexico. By Osowski, Edward W.. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2010. $50.00 cloth.) Mark Z. Christen…
The Use of Nahuatl in Evangelization and the Ministry of Sebastian
Nahuatl played an essential role in the evangelization of Central Mexico. Although the crown and its appointed officials vacillated between the use of Nahuatl and Spanish in teaching the Christian doctrine, the majority of ecclesiastics supported the use of Nahuatl, particularly in the composition of religious texts. Examining a Nahuatl sermon on the ministry of St. Sebastian, this article illustrates the necessity of Nahuatl in evangelization wh…
Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Texts and Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan
Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Texts and Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan
This book examines ecclesiastical texts written in Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya to illustrate their role in conveying and reflecting various Catholic messages—and thus Catholicisms—throughout colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan. It demonstrates how published and unpublished sermons, confessional manuals, catechisms, and other religious texts betray "official" and "unofficial" versions of Catholicism, and how these versions changed throughout the colo…
The Teabo Manuscript
Among the surviving documents from the colonial period in Mexico are rare Maya-authored manuscript compilations of Christian texts, translated and adapted into the Maya language and worldview, which were used to evangelize the local population. The Morely Manuscript is well known to scholars, and now The Teabo Manuscript introduces an additional example of what Mark Z. Christensen terms a Maya Christian copybook. Recently discovered in the archiv…
Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature
Book Review| October 01 2013 Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Maya Literature. Edited by Hull, Kerry M. and Carrasco, Michael D.. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012. ix + 493 pp., illustrations, introduction, glossary, contributors, index. $85.00 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Ch…
Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis
Book Review| April 01 2013 Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis. By Early, John D.. (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. vii + 499 pp., illustrations, tables, preface, abbreviations, bibliography, index. $74.95 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Christensen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2013) 60 (2): 337–338. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2074315 Cite …
Translated Christianities: Nahuatl and Maya Religious Texts
"English translations of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts, including sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals. Includes commentary examining the various Christianities presented to the colonial Aztec (Nahua) and Yucatec Maya, the origins and purpose of the texts, and their authors and the messages they intended to convey"--Provided by publisher.
Translated Christianities: Nahuatl and Maya Religious Texts
Beginning in the sixteenth century, ecclesiastics and others created religious texts written in the native languages of the Nahua and Yucatec Maya. These texts played an important role in the evangelization of central Mexico and Yucatan. Translated Christianities is the first book to provide readers with English translations of a variety of Nahuatl and Maya religious texts. It pulls Nahuatl and Maya sermons, catechisms, and confessional manuals o…
Native Wills from the Colonial Americas: Dead Giveaways in a New World
"Native Wills from the Colonial Americas showcases new testamentary sources from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It provides readers with translations and analyses of wills written in Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya, K’iche’ Maya, Mixtec, and Wampanoag. Divided into three thematic sections, the book provides insights and details that further our understanding of indigenous life in the Americas under colonial rule. Part One employs testa…
Steven E. Turley. Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524–1599: Conflict beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19: 1–10)
Journal Article Steven E. Turley. Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524–1599: Conflict beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19: 1–10). Get access Steven E. Turley. Franciscan Spirituality and Mission in New Spain, 1524–1599: Conflict beneath the Sycamore Tree (Luke 19: 1–10). (Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700.) Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2014. Pp. x, 202. $119.95. Mark Christensen Mark Christensen Assumption College mz.ch…
Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes: Insights from Archaeology, History, and Ethnography
In this well-documented and illustrated work, Joel Palka further exposes the important role that pilgrimages to ritual landscapes play in Maya culture. To do so, Palka draws upon an impressive interdisciplinary array of data from archaeological, historical, and ethnographic studies to illustrate the continued importance of such pilgrimages and landscapes in Maya culture — and those Mesoamerican in general — from Preclassic to modern times. Wherea…
Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance
Book Review| January 01 2015 Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance Mesoamerican Memory: Enduring Systems of Remembrance. Edited by Megged, Amos and Wood, Stephanie. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. v + 320 pp., illustrations, introduction, bibliography, index. $55.00 cloth.) Mark Z. Christensen Mark Z. Christensen Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2015) 62 (1): 171–172. https://doi…
The Teabo Manuscript: Maya Christian Copybooks, Chilam Balams, and Native Text Production in Yucatán
Among the surviving documents from the colonial period in Mexico are rare Maya-authored manuscript compilations of Christian texts, translated and adapted into the Maya language and worldview, which were used to evangelize the local population. The Morely Manuscript is well known to scholars, and now The Teabo Manuscript introduces an additional example of what Mark Z. Christensen terms a Maya Christian copybook. Recently discovered in the archiv…
Recent Approaches in Understanding Evangelization in New Spain
This article surveys scholarship on the evangelization of the natives of New Spain that challenge the myths and assumptions behind a “spiritual conquest.” Aided by native‐language sources and armed with a more critical reading of those Spanish, contemporary works debunk many myths associated with the spiritual conquest including those advocating a complete and finished conversion, the dominant role of the Spanish clergy, and a monolithic view of …
Maya Lords and Lordships: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350-1600
Book Review| January 01 2016 Maya Lords and Lordships: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350–1600 Maya Lords and Lordships: The Formation of Colonial Society in Yucatán, 1350–1600. By Quezada, Sergio. Translated by Rugeley, Terry. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. vii + 248 pp., preface, introduction, appendixes, glossary, bibliography, index. $34.95 cloth.) Mark Christensen Mark Christensen Search for other works by this …
La transmisíon de conceptos cristianos a las lenguas amerindias
Ever since Robert Ricard’s 1933 Conquête spirituelle du Mexique, the conversion of the natives of the Americas has captured the attention of scholars seeking to understand the evangelization process, its successes, failures, and limits. The use of native-language texts in this historiography has been around for a few decades now, but it continues to hold great promise in enlightening our understanding of how missionaries brought Catholicism to th…
Return to Ixil: Maya Society in an Eighteenth-century Yucatec Town
An examination of 100+ previously unstudied colonial-era Maya wills from the Yucatec town of Ixil. These testaments--some of the only surviving documentation of colonial inhabitation--offer unprecedented depictions of material and spiritual life from 1738 to 1779 and are rare and rich resources of Maya language.--Provided by publisher
To Heaven or to Hell: "Bartolomé de Las Casas's "Confesionario
Today, the name Bartolomé de Las Casas is synonymous with native rights, largely due to his widely popular Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias, which details the horrors that Spaniards committed in the Americas. Yet the friar produced many other works that provide additional insight into his views on Spanish colonization and his vision for how to best evangelize the natives. One such work is his Confesionario, which David Thomas Or…
The Burden of the Ancients: Maya Ceremonies of World Renewal from the Pre-Columbian Period to the Present
For years scholars have observed the ability of the Maya to continue traditions and rituals connecting them to their historical past. As the title of Allen Christenson's most recent work states, in many ways the contemporary Maya bear “the burden of the ancients,” particularly in their ceremonies of world renewal. Christenson's work among the Guatemalan Maya stems from his extensive fieldwork and knowledge of the languages, including K'iche’ and …
Maya militia: The defense and government of colonial Ixil, Yucatan
To the westward of Telchac, 9 miles, is a lookout tower, and a rancho of a few huts, named Yxil in a grove of cocoanut [sic] trees.W.W. Gillpatrick, U.S.N., 18851 The road from the town of Ixil is
Accounting for Animal Welfare: Addressing Epistemic Vices During Live Sheep Export Voyages
The Historian's Craft: Creating the Past in Colonial Latin America
This essay reviews the following works:Unlocking the Doors to the Worlds of Guaman Poma and His Nueva corónica. Edited by Rolena Adorno and Ivan Boserup. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2015. Pp. 483. $120.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781107129030
Latin American history and culture (22 works) · History (21 works) · Archaeology (17 works) · Art (14 works) · Maya (12 works) · Colonialism (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Icon (7 works)