Cornelius Conover. Pious Imperialism

In Pious Imperialism: Spanish Rule and the Cult of Saints in Mexico City, Cornelius Conover argues that the Catholic faith was integral to the ambitious expansion and administration of the Spanish Empire. Its specific version of Catholicism—characterized by a self-assured and even reckless confidence in God’s providential favor—informed colonial administration within imperial boundaries and mission strategy beyond. Conover’s novel addition to this understanding is to explain the mechanism by which Catholicism bound together Crown and colonial subjects, metropole and colonial periphery—what he calls “pious imperialism.” Exceptional among the tools available to the pious imperialist was the daily liturgical rhythm of colonial life as expressed through the cult of the saints. Catholic liturgy called on royal subjects to honor God through loyal service to the Crown. In return, Spanish kings wielded their considerable political and financial clout in Rome to create Spanish saints and to imprint them into the universal Catholic liturgy. Spanish subjects derived great patriotic pride from this prominence of “their” saints, and the Crown nurtured their loyalty with lavish support for expressions of popular and civic devotion to those same saints. This mutually beneficial exchange bound Crown and colonists together in a shared mission.

Colonialism · Cult · Empire · Faith · Hegemony · Honor · Liturgy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy