With a vivid ethnographic lens on a Spanish village, Josep Almudever Chanza brings to life the resurgence of religion at the heart of European public life amid the global rise of neo-conservatism. This book reveals how faith, far from fading, is being reshaped, reclaimed, and reasserted as a powerful force in Europe's social, cultural, and political transformations.
Through immersive fieldwork, including participant observation, oral histories, interviews, and archival digging, Almudever Chanza uncovers how villagers navigate and reinterpret religious rituals in everyday life. Faith emerges not as static tradition but as a living, contested space where the boundaries between secular and sacred, conservative and progressive, institutional and grassroots are constantly renegotiated
From material religious practices to the shifting role of the Catholic Church, each chapter explores how new forms of faith-based identity are being crafted on the ground. Central to the narrative is the question of gender: how are historically excluded voices, especially sexual and gender minorities, reshaping religious life from within?
Boldly interdisciplinary, Almudever Chanza draws on feminist theory, critical theology, and cultural politics to challenge dominant narratives and offer a timely, provocative account of religion's evolving role in Europe today. This is not just a study of belief-it's a story of power, resistance, and transformation.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
As a skilled anthropologist, Almudever Chanza persuasively argues that, far from being marginal figures in the Catholic Church, women and gay men are the beating heart of Catholic public devotional life in a Valencian village. As a native son of that same village, he offers an intimate and insightful portrait of local interpersonal relationships and the forms of religious creativity and spiritual resilience they engender. * Dr. Eric Hoenes del Pinal, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA * This innovative and rich ethnography beautifully challenges any easy idea that the traditional can't be contemporary as it focuses on the way Catholicism is made, mostly by women, in rural Spain. * Jill DeTemple, Southern Methodist University, USA *
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Zielgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
mit Schutzumschlag
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 234 mm
Breite: 156 mm
Dicke: 28 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-350-50016-7 (9781350500167)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Josep Almudever Chanza is a lecturer in Social Geographies at Newcastle University, UK and a poet. His academic research explores religious innovation, gender, sexuality, and Europe's south.
Autor*in
Newcastle University, UK
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Gossip and Godly Work
2.Traditional Inventions
3. The church as an open closet
4. Co-Existing Through Opposition
5. Queering materiality
6. Out of the box
Conclusion
