Theater of a Thousand Wonders

For those of us who study religion in Mexico, a new book by William Taylor represents an opportunity and an obligation. The author of several field-shaping books on colonial Mexico, Taylor turned his attention to religious culture and the Catholic Church in the 1990s, and he has continued to publish on the topic after retirement. Scholars have long stressed the ubiquity of Catholicism in Mexican life, but few have done as much as Taylor to flesh out the nuanced institutional, sociopolitical, and cultural dynamics beneath these assertions. For this reader, the twin towers of his oeuvre reside in his exceptional volume on priests in colonial society, Magistrates of the Sacred (1996), and the book presently under review.The author divides the book into two parts. The first, titled “Bearings,” offers the reader a four-chapter, carefully documented, chronology of shrine establishment and development. The second, labeled “Soundings,” offers five chapters focused on the material culture of devotion and religious practices centered on images. It represents an excellent introduction to Catholic notions of the miraculous, popular devotional expression, and how printed images and religious statues were integrated into Mexican religious culture. Each chapter also includes a short conclusion at the end, which may aid those inclined to skim the text. The notes to each chapter also appear immediately after these summaries, instead of at the end of the book. Sadly, like so many scholarly publications today, this one does not have a bibliography.As in his previous works, Taylor is thoughtful and meticulous. For scholars who work on religion in Mexico, Theater of a Thousand Wonders does not offer much in the way of shocking revelations, with one notable exception, which I will address shortly. The author provides, however, chapter after chapter of insightful discussion of on an array of related topics; for example, you will emerge understanding what Marian advocations are and how they differ from miraculous images of Christ in Mexican devotional culture. In a different vein, many readers will be surprised to learn that the great majority of shrines were urban, and Mexico City’s network of holy places and miraculous images dwarfed those of all other locales. Taylor focuses on patterns, structures, and change over time. In some areas, he dabbles in informed speculation, but notes when the available evidence does not support a deeper discussion foray. In fact, Taylor acknowledges a fundamental disappointment, which, in many ways, haunts the entire tome: despite the vast colonial documentary corpus, we are only afforded a hazy, often static, portrait of common people’s practices or experiences. Mostly, the available sources detail institutional concerns.Taylor, thankfully, soldiers on. We learn that the formative period for image devotions and shrines is the “long seventeenth century” (1580–1720) followed by a century of expansion but few new devotions (63). For this reviewer, the biggest surprise is Taylor’s deduction that long-distance pilgrimage was quite rare (502). Most scholars, and, I would wager, most Mexican Catholics, assume that the popular pilgrimage devotions today represent an extension of colonial practices. However, Taylor argues that given the scrutiny of long-distance trade, and the coordination of licensed alms collectors throughout New Spain, we should assume that priests and government officials would have mentioned pilgrimages if they were taking place. As Taylor details, there was a great deal of discussion of short-distance shrine travel (procesiones and romerías), but mostly silence on multiday devotional travel of the kind that was well established in Europe.In sum, Theater of a Thousand Wonders is an important, profoundly useful book. Taylor long ago proved himself to be the master of deeply researched, carefully argued, and artful exposition. Here he provides an accessible yet erudite overview of an enduring cornerstone of Mexican culture. It probably represents too much detail on religion for most undergraduates, but it is essential for graduate students and scholars of Latin American history

Ancient history · Art · History · Latin American history and culture · Religious Tourism and Spaces

• Dibujar con buril y pluma

  Open Access•Elena Manchado Rodríguez•Hipogrifo Revista de literatura y…•2021

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