Missions begin with blood : suffering and salvation in the borderlands of new Spain / Brandon Bayne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bayne, Brandon L., author.

Series:

Catholic practice in North America

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jesuits.

Martyrdom--Christianity--History.

Martyrdom.

Agriculture--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Agriculture.

Martyrdom--Christianity.

Missions.

Jesuits--Missions--Mexico--History--Spanish colony, 1540-1810.

History.

Mexico.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

317 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2022.

Summary:

"While the idea that successful missions needed Indigenous revolts and missionary deaths seems counterintuitive, this book illustrates how it became a central logic of frontier colonization in Spanish North America. Missions Begin with Blood argues that martyrdom acted as a ceremony of possession that helped Jesuits understand violence, disease, and death as ways that God inevitably worked to advance Christendom. Whether petitioning superiors for support, preparing to extirpate Native "idolatries," or protecting their conversions from critics, Jesuits found power in their persecution and victory in their victimization. This book correlates these tales of sacrifice to deep genealogies of redemptive death in Catholic discourse and explains how martyrological idioms worked to rationalize early modern colonialism. Specifically, missionaries invoked an agricultural metaphor that reconfigured suffering into seed that, when watered by sweat and blood, would one day bring a rich harvest of Indigenous Christianity"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Seeds: Planting Conversions

2. Weeds: Ritual Confrontations

3. Fruits: Passionate Expansion

4. Deserted: Prolonged Isolation

5. Uprooted: Missionary Expulsion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780823294206

082329420X

9780823294190

0823294196

OCLC:

1178651305

Publisher Number:

99988701720