Living Devotions: Reflections on Immigration, Identity, and Religious Imagination

Description: Living Devotions explores how a particular community has creatively negotiated its religious bonds of connection in the context of immigration. These matters cannot be studied in the abstract. Religious practice is not something separate from the economic, cultural, and psychological dimensions of life, but rather something integral, which shapes and is being shaped by all of these other realities. The author examines these dynamics through an ethnographic case study of the living devotions of a group of Italian Catholic immigrants to San Pedro, California. The narrative describes how the group's historical experiences of immigration and fishing find expression in their particular forms of prayer, art, artifacts, and food. The healing and transformative power of these shared religious practices is explored. As contemporary theologians, pastors, and congregations seek to welcome and care for immigrants and other strangers in a shifting social landscape, we need ways to engage in care-full and attentive relationships. The ethnographic method employed here suggests a way to lift up the voices of ordinary people, allowing them to tell their own stories, while piecing together emerging bits of theological wisdom and compelling care practices. While the particular insights of any community are situated and specific, theological reflection in one context can animate a broader discussion of transformative pastoral theology and practice. Endorsements: Living Devotions describes a Catholic community in San Pedro, California, in which a visual and material piety infuses the activities of daily life. In this community, the sacred and the mundane--praying and partying, catching fish and feeding others--are easily integrated. In this engaging book, Moschella considers critical questions and explores theological and psychological conceptual frameworks that assist understanding without allowing theory to overpower the voices of the people who told her about their 'sacramental way of life.' Living Devotions is a moving account of the beliefs, values, and practices that inform and support their vibrant faith. --Margaret R. Miles, Professor of Historical Theology, Emerita, Graduate Theological Union This is simply a wonderful book. Beautifully written, captivating in its detail, wise in its analysis, pastoral in its sensitivity, Living Devotions offers an illuminating 'ethnographic narrative' of an Italian Catholic immigrant community 'told in a pastoral theological voice.' For all those who hope to understand religion as it is woven richly into life--religion scholars and practitioners alike--this book is a must-read. It will equip scholars to enter the world of lived beliefs while enhancing the imagination of those in ministry. --Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Vanderbilt University Divinity School Living Devotions is one of those rare books that will enliven the imaginations of students even as it deepens the insights of scholars and practitioners. Used as a textbook, this captivating portrayal of an Italian and Sicilian Catholic immigrant community will engagingly illustrate skilled ethnographic research and analysis for students and teachers in many parts of the academy--especially history, religious and theological studies, and psychology. At the same time, in Living Devotions, Mary Moschella provides for scholars and practitioners in many fields a stunning example of a truly interdisciplinary work that illuminates the wonderfully complex relatedness between history, religious practices, ethnic diversity and particularity, immigration, and care for the human soul. --Kathleen J. Greider, Claremont Graduate University If you like minestrone soup, you will enjoy this book. It is a rich mixture of social history, a study of the practices of devotional piety, storytelling, and theological reflection--all done with respect and a spirit of appreciative inquiry toward the good people of Mary Star of the Sea Church a.…