This book is the first in-depth study of the changing perceptions and receptions of supernatural bodies in modern Britain and Ireland. It focuses on one phenomenon that became hotly contested and discussed in the public sphere between 1840 and 1940: the stigmata. In 1874, an Irish reporter asked why the wounds of the crucified Christ on mortal bodies could ‘not be discussed with calmness...without indulging in angry rhetoric’. Supernatural bodies takes that question seriously. It draws on previously unexamined archival materials to place supernatural bodies at the heart of long-lasting discussions about the position of Roman Catholicism in society; the supernatural in modern Christianity and society; the authority of sciences; the relationship between Britain and Ireland, and between Britain and the Continent. Through the lens of stigmata controversies, this book shows how these discussions could converge around supernatural bodies.
Price: £85.00
Pages: 264
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Publication Date:
24 September 2024
ISBN: 9781526177230
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), Social and cultural history, HISTORY / Europe / Ireland, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 20th Century, RELIGION / Christianity / Catholic, BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Supernatural (incl. Ghosts), Unexplained phenomena / the paranormal, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church
"Smeyers carefully weaves the “big” themes of interdenominational conflict, questions of orthodoxy and proof, and debates on the meaning of bodily phenomena, with the “small” histories of individuals and communities into which apparently miraculous events had (generally unexpectedly) intruded."
- Irish Theological Quarterly
Smeyers demonstrates an assured control over his subject matter and skilfully articulates the complexities of stigmata’s symbolism in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Britain and Ireland. His study convincingly shows how stigmata not only informed modern denominational and national identities, but also how it became a means of wounding the belief systems of rivals, be they confessional opponents, national adversaries, or competing advocates of faith, science and reason. It also makes an important contribution to the growing historiography on modern supernatural phenomena.'
Karl Bell, British Catholic History
Kristof Smeyers is a Research Fellow at the University of Louvain
Introduction
1 A Roman Catholic horror: stigmatic anxieties in the early nineteenth century
2 Supernatural popery
3 A corpus of bodies
4 Bodily credentials
5 Unhealthy religion
6 Under the skin
7 In defence of the supernatural
8 Public knowledge and judgment
Conclusion
