Jesus in our wombs : embodying modernity in a Mexican convent / Rebecca J. Lester.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lester, Rebecca J., 1969-

Series:

Ethnographic studies in subjectivity ; 5.

Ethnographic studies in subjectivity ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monastic and religious life of women--Mexico--Psychology.

Monastic and religious life of women.

Postulancy--Psychology.

Postulancy.

Women--Mexico--Social conditions--Psychological aspects.

Women.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (360 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Jesus in Our Wombs, Rebecca J. Lester takes us behind the walls of a Roman Catholic convent in central Mexico to explore the lives, training, and experiences of a group of postulants - young women in the first stage of religious training as nuns. Lester, who conducted eighteen months of fieldwork in the convent, provides a rich ethnography of these young women's journeys as they wrestle with doubts, fears, ambitions, and setbacks in their struggle to follow what they believe to be the will of God.

Contents:

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1 Female Bodies and the Touch of God; 2 The Siervas; 3 Religious Formation; 4 Brokenness: Restless in My Own Skin; 5 Belonging: Sisters in Arms; 6 Containment: Producing the Interior; 7 Regimentation: Making the Mindful Body; 8 Self-Critique: Diagnosing the Soul; 9 Surrender: Turning It Over to God; 10 Re/Collection: The Temporal Contours of the Self; 11 Changing the Subject: Transformations; 12 Mexican Modernities; 13 Bodies and Selves: Theorizing Embodiment; Appendix: Glossary of Catholic Terms and Selected Central Prayers; References

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-329) and index.

ISBN:

0-520-93820-8

1-59875-533-1

OCLC:

475938279