Description:
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.
Brief description: Mark Z. Christensen is Assistant Professor of History at Assumption College.
Review Quotes:
"How to know the success of the evangelization of Mesoamerican peoples during the colonial era? Mark Christensen's Translated Christianities goes a long way toward answering that question by means of a masterful translation and analysis of selected Nahuatl- and Maya-language ecclesiastical texts by indigenous authors and some clergy, both of whom fashioned local catechisms, confessionals, baptismal treatises, and Christian stories for the edification of their congregations. Thus, ku and altepetl and balche and nixtamal, among many other native concepts in these writings, served to keep the natives' world real as they contemplated the mysteries of the faith. This work is an important contribution to our field."
--Susan Schroeder, Tulane University