Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? focuses on the significance of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its accompanying imagery in eighteenth-century New Spain. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank considers paintings, prints, devotional texts, and archival sources within the Mexican context alongside issues and debates occurring in Europe to situate the New Spanish cult within local and global developments. She examines the iconography of these religious images and frames them within broader socio-political and religious discourses related to the Eucharist, the sun, the Jesuits, scientific and anatomical ideas, and mysticism. Images of the Heart helped to champion the cult's validity as it was attacked by religious reformers.

The Reformation is often alluded to as Gutenberg's child. Could it then be said that the Counter-Reformation was his step-child? The close relationship between the Reformation, the printing press and books has received extensive, historiographical attention, which is clearly justified; however, the links between books and the Catholic world have often been limited to a tale of censorship and repression. The current volume looks beyond this, with a series of papers that aim to shed new light on the complex relationships between Catholicism and books during the early modern period, before and after the religious schism, with special focus on trade, common reads and the mechanisms used to control readership in different territories, together with the similarities between the Catholic and the Protestant worlds. Contributors include: Stijn Van Rossem, Rafael M. Perez Garcia, Pedro J. Rueda Ramirez, Idalia Garcia Aguilar, Bianca Lindorfer, Natalia Maillard Alvarez, and Adrien Delmas.

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the generations of women who entered religious life in the United States after 1965. It provides up-to-date demographics for women's religious institutes; a summary of canon law locating religious life within the various forms of life in the Church; an analysis of Church documents on religious life; and data on the views of post-Vatican II entrants regarding ministry, identity, prayer, spirituality, the vows, and community. Beginning each chapter with an engaging narrative, the authors explore how different generations of Catholic women first became attracted to vowed religious life and what kinds of religious institutes they were seeking. By analyzing the results of extensive national surveys, the authors systematically examine how the new generations of Sisters differ from previous ones, and what those changes suggest about the future. The book concludes with recommendations for further understanding of generations within religious life and within the Church and society. Because of its breadth and depth, this book will be regarded by scholars, the media, and practitioners as an essential resource for the sociological study of religious life for women in the United States.