Sacred Habitat: Nature and Catholicism in the Early Modern Spanish Atlantic

The early modern era in Europe was a time of revolutions in science, and Sacred Habitat explores how Spanish friars and missionaries used new scholarly approaches to promote Catholic goals and incorporate American nature into church traditions. Ran Segev contends that knowledge about American nature allowed pious Catholics to reconnect with their religious traditions and apply their beliefs to a foreign land.

Format: Hardback
Length: 230 pages
Publication date: 29 August 2023
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

The early modern era in Europe, a period marked by significant scientific advancements, witnessed the emergence of novel disciplines and innovative ways of thinking. Sacred Habitat delves deeper into this concept, highlighting how Spanish friars and missionaries employed new scholarly approaches, methodologies, and empirical data derived from their ecological studies to promote Catholic objectives and seamlessly integrate American nature into centuries-old church traditions.

In his insightful work, Ran Segev explores the intricate interplay between Catholicism, geography, cosmography, and natural history, which emerged as prominent fields of study during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Segev demonstrates how these new bodies of knowledge offered innovative frameworks for conceptualizing and disseminating religious ideologies in the post-Reformation era. By seamlessly weaving together historical narratives on Spain and its colonies, scholarship on the Catholic Reformation, Atlantic science, and environmental history, Segev establishes a compelling argument that knowledge about American nature facilitated a profound reconnection between pious Catholics and their religious traditions. This connection enabled them to apply their beliefs to a foreign land, fostering a renewed sense of purpose and cultural identity.

Sacred Habitat offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on Catholic renewal, appealing to scholars of religion and historians specializing in Spain, colonial Latin America, and early modern science. This provocative intervention in the history of empire, science, knowledge, and early modern Catholicism invites readers to reexamine the complex interplay between religion, science, and cultural exchange in the early modern world.

Weight: 506g
Dimension: 159 x 237 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271095332