Popular Catholicism

""Ernesto de Martino was a major critical thinker in the study of vernacular religions, producing innovative analyses of key concepts such as ‘folklore’, ‘magic’ and ‘ritual’. His methodology stemmed from his training under the philosopher Benedetto Croce whilst his philosophical approach to anthropology borrowed from Marx and Gramsci.

Widely celebrated in continental Europe, de Martino’s contribution to the study of religion has not been fully understood in the Anglophone world though some of his works - Primitive Magic: the Psychic Powers of Shamans and Sorcerers and The Land of Remorse: a Study of Southern Italian Tarantism - have been translated.

This volume presents a comprehensive overview of de Martino’s life and work, the thinkers and theories which informed his writings, his contribution to the study of religions and the potential of his methodology for contemporary scholarship.""

The interview was realised in Rome in 2004, the third of a small series on the exorcist/psychiatrist/anthropologist triad. Prof. Talamonti has conducted researches on Catholic exorcism in Italy since the early 1990s, publishing numerous articles and books on this topic. In this interview, she reflects on the method she used to approach the study of the exorcisms practiced by Don Gabriele Amorth, and considers the challenges of the collaboration between anthropology and psychiatry. Her observations shed light on the therapeutic itineraries of patients who move back and forth between the possibilities offered by the religious and the medical frameworks. She recalls her experience of doing ethnographic fieldwork on exorcism, and reflects on the place the ritual has occupied in anthropological studies, in the official doctrine of Catholic Church and in popular culture. Eventually, she details the role of Catholic charismatic groups and their collaboration with exorcists.
In Italian.

This chapter assesses the persistence of material culture in modern Marian devotion, against the backdrop of technological developments in the mass media and in conjunction with a history of modern apparitions. It argues that, despite the 'virtualization' of Marian phenomena, iconography, and devotional practice through media such as photography and the internet, the sensuous materiality of objects such as statues, relics, and the rosary still offers an important means through which the faithful experience Mary collec­ tively and phenomenologically. Linking the centrality of material religion in Mary's cult to theological notions of her corporeal incorruptibility and intercessory power, the chapter presents several cases where both mass and materially mediated images and relics of Mary have been used to propagate devotion to her. The chapter concludes with a discus­ sion of deterritorialized religion in the digital age, arguing that despite the effect of tech­ nologies like the internet on Marian devotion and phenomena, Mary's devotees will still reach for tangible signs of her presence.

Résumé: Le champ religieux péruvien (catholique et évangélique) se caractérise par la ferveur, la créativité et le dynamisme. Les spécialistes le considèrent comme spécifique d'une cosmovision enchantée. Cependant, certains d'entre eux, en particulier Casanova et aussi la hiérarchie catholique, notent des signes d'essoufflement et de transformation qu'ils considèrent comme un processus de sécularisation. Cet article se propose d'interpréter ces signes en contexte et de montrer comment ils révèlent un changement dans la relation fidèles-institutions religieuses. Celles-ci gardent leur présence et leur prestige et jouissent d'un pouvoir redéfini dans un environnement social et politique fragilisé, en mutation, mais elles ne structurent plus les rythmes vitaux individuels et les normes communautaires. Entre ferveur très souvent hors institution et brouillage de sphères, un processus de sécularisation est donc peu adéquat pour rendre compte des transformations religieuses en cours.
Mots Clés: sécularisation. cosmovision enchantée. sans religion. religion et politique. Pérou.
Abstract: Fervor, creativity and dynamism represent characteristic features of the Peruvian religious field (Catholic and Evangelical). Specialists consider it as corresponding to an enchanted worldview. Nonetheless, some of them, in particular Casanova and the Catholic hierarchy, have noticed signs of transformation and slowdown which they consider a secularization process. This article aims at interpreting those signs in context and at showing how they reveal a change in the relationship between faithful and religious institutions. Churches maintain their presence and their prestige and have a power which has been redefined in a weakened social and political environment in process of transformation. However, they do not structure any more individual vital rhythms and community norms. Between fervor very often out of institutional context and confusions of spheres, a secularization process is not really convenient to reflect the religious transformations in process.
Key words: secularization. enchanted worldview. no religion. religion and politics. Peru.

This paper is a small contribution to the study of popular religious beliefs and practices in Belarusian lands under Russian imperial rule in the second half of 19th century. Drawing on some ethnographic studies and fiction literature it shows that peasant Catholic religiosity was far from officially sanctioned and approved by the Roman Catholic clergy religious practices of the elites.

Full text of my interview to Gabriele Amorth (1925 – 2016). Catholic priest, exorcist of the diocese of Rome, founder and president of the International Association of Exorcists, Amorth has been a controversial figure and the most publicly known practicing exorcist of the last decades. He was also an author, a radio speaker and a decorated partisan who fought during the Italian Resistance in WWII.
The interview was realised in Rome in 2004 and focuses on his life and training under the guidance of exorcist Candido Amantini, on the qualities of an exorcist priest and on the characteristics of his patients and the ritual itself. The relations and possibilities of collaboration between exorcists and psychiatrists are also problematised, as are the reasons why Amorth believed the practice of exorcism was going through a dangerous period of crisis.
In Italian.