NYU Press
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Fall 2020
19
Religion
LIFEBLOOD OF THE PARISH
Men and Catholic Devotion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA A New York City ethnography that explores men's unique approaches to Catholic devotion Every Saturday a group of men in old clothes can be found in the basement of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg. Each year the parish hosts the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and San Paolino di Nola. Its crowning event is the Dance of the Giglio, where the men lift a seventy-foot tall, four-ton tower through the streets, bearing its weight on their shoulders. Drawing on six years of research, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada reveals the making of this Italian American tower, as the men work year-round to prepare for the Feast. She argue that this behind-thescenes activity represents largely overlooked devotional practices, and that paying attention to them sheds new light on how men embody and enact their religiosity in sometimes unexpected ways.
Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Kalamazoo College.
December 2020 304 pages • 6 x 9 Paper • $32.00S(£24.99) 9781479830497 Cloth • $89.00X(£74.00) 9781479872244 In North American Religions Religion
THE MAKING OF AMERICAN CATHOLICISM Regional Culture and the Catholic Experience MICHAEL J. PFEIFER Traces the development of Catholic cultures in the South, the Midwest, the West, and the Northeast, and their contribution to larger patterns of Catholicism in the United States Most histories of American Catholicism take a national focus, leading to a homogenization of American Catholicism that misses much of the local complexity that has marked how Catholicism developed differently in different parts of the country. This book argues that regional and transnational relationships have been central to the development of American Catholicism. Exploring the history of Catholic cultures in New Orleans, Iowa, Wisconsin, Los Angeles, and New York City, the volume assesses the role of region in American Catholic history, carefully exploring the development of American Catholic cultures across the continental United States. Drawing on extensive archival research, The Making of American Catholicism argues that American Catholicism developed as transnational Catholics creatively adapted their devotional and ideological practices in particular American regional contexts.
Michael J. Pfeifer is Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY Graduate Center.
January 2021 256 pages • 6 x 9 Paper • $30.00S(£23.99) 9781479889426 Cloth • $89.00X(£74.00) 9781479829453 Religion
