Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis

Bibliographic Data

ID19975417
AuthorsJohn D Early, John Early (corresponding author)
Year2012
Publication date2012-07-15
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueMaya and Catholic cultures in crisis (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity Press of Florida (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5744/florida/9780813040134.001.0001
OpenAlexW4300366115
ISBN9780813040134
Open LibraryOL25189888M
LanguageEN
Citations received8

The book describes the interaction in Maya communities between Maya and Catholic theological worldviews from the middle to the end of the twentieth century. Both worldviews were experiencing periods of crisis. The Maya crisis was rooted in loss of land and extreme poverty. This brought their theology into question since the covenant with their gods was supposed to protect their communities. The Catholic Church, following the Liberal suppression, had returned to Maya communities. It attempted to evangelize them according to the Catholic worldview formulated by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent. This did little to alleviate the Maya crisis. This shortcoming was systemic within Catholicism resulting in a crisis due to the inability of Tridentine theology to give meaning to people's lives in the twentieth century. A progressive sector of Catholicism attempted to confront the crisis by the Action Catholic movement with its foundation in biblical theology. In numerous Maya communities, groups studied biblical liberation and implemented it in programs of empowerment and social justice. But due to continuing structures of injustice, urban ladino Marxists infiltrated some Action Catholic communities resulting in armed rebellions. Assisting Maya liberation resulted in conversion experiences for some Catholic priests that led them to challenge the existing order of the Catholic Church and national governments. The study of the biblical liberation also led to the need for liberation from western theological categories by the development of a Maya Christian theology based on the Maya wisdom of ancestors manifested in the many myths of the Maya tradition

Injustice · Liberation theology · Maya · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Catholicism and Religious Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious and Theological Studies · Religious studies · Catholic church · Catholics · Central america · Christianity and culture · Christianity and other religions · Indian Catholics · Latin America · Maya cosmology · Mayas · Missions · Religion · rites and ceremonies

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