AUDIOBOOK
The Church of the Dead
The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas
Jennifer Scheper Hughes2
(4)
About
Many scholars have come to think of the European Christian mission to the Americas as an inevitable success. But in its early period, it was very much on the brink of failure. In 1576, Indigenous Mexican communities suffered a catastrophic epidemic that took almost two million lives and simultaneously left the colonial church in ruins. In the crisis and its immediate aftermath, Spanish missionaries and surviving pueblos de Indios held radically different visions for the future of Christianity in the Americas.
The Church of the Dead offers a counter-history of American Christian origins. It centers on the power of Indigenous Mexicans, showing how their Catholic faith remained intact even in the face of the faltering religious fervor of Spanish missionaries. While the Europeans grappled with their failure to stem the tide of death, succumbing to despair, Indigenous survivors worked to reconstruct the church. They reasserted ancestral territories as sovereign, with Indigenous Catholic states rivaling the jurisdiction of the diocese and the power of friars and bishops.
The Church of the Dead offers a counter-history of American Christian origins. It centers on the power of Indigenous Mexicans, showing how their Catholic faith remained intact even in the face of the faltering religious fervor of Spanish missionaries. While the Europeans grappled with their failure to stem the tide of death, succumbing to despair, Indigenous survivors worked to reconstruct the church. They reasserted ancestral territories as sovereign, with Indigenous Catholic states rivaling the jurisdiction of the diocese and the power of friars and bishops.