Veiled Threats

Download or read book Veiled Threats written by Michael P. Carroll and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his acclaimed Madonnas That Maim, Michael Carroll began his systematic examination of popular Catholicism in Italy. Now, in Veiled Threats, Carroll delves more deeply into the distinctive character of Italian popular Catholicism. He explores in detail the complex relationship between popular and official Catholicism in Italy from the fifteenth century to the present, bringing to light a considerable body of recent Italian scholarship on the Catholic experience in Italy never before translated into English. Carroll places special emphasis on miraculous images and the cults that form around them, on public performances such as self-flagellation during Holy Week processions, on devotion to souls in Purgatory, on the success of preaching orders in adapting to local beliefs, on the role of relics and the incorrupt bodies of saints, and on differing responses to the Reformation in northern and southern Italy. Throughout Veiled Threats, Carroll discovers in the beliefs and practices of popular Catholicism and implicit logic and vital creativity that reflect local experiences and needs far removed from those of official Catholicism.