Plagues, Priests, and Demons: Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New

ISBN-13: 9780521840781 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 306 str.

Daniel T. Reff

Opis

This comparative interdisciplinary study of the rise of Christianity in the late Roman Empire and in colonial Mexico reveals that epidemic disease undermined pre-Christian societies, contributing respectively to pagan and Indian interest in new forms of social and religious life. Christian clerics and monks in early medieval Europe and, later, Jesuit missionaries in colonial Mexico, reacted by introducing new beliefs and practices and accommodating indigenous religions as well.

Recenzje

'… a brilliant book …' British Medical Journal

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. Epidemic disease and the rise of Christianity in Europe, 150–800 CE; 3. The rise of Christianity in the New World: the Jesuit missions of colonial Mexico, 1591–1660; 4. The relevance of Early Christian literature to missionaries in colonial Latin America; 5. Conclusion.