Lifeblood of the Parish

Offers readers a look into a complicated history between various cultures and communities, one collectively built up over decades and, quite literally, on the shoulders of men. Maldonado-Estrada complicates what masculinity looks like in the Catholic Church, marking it as a process that occurs over years of piety, devotion, but above all work. * National Catholic Reporter *
Lifeblood of the Parish is a thoroughly researched, impressively crafted, and beautifully written contribution to the study of religious practice. Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada takes us into the behind-the-scenes places where it becomes possible to understand the relationships of masculinity, ethnicity, and Catholic devotion in new ways. I enthusiastically recommend it to urban sociologists and anthropologists as well as to scholars of religion. -- Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University
Lifeblood of the Parish is a beautifully crafted ethnography of men’s devotions, the power of place, and the bonds of friendship. This is, without a doubt, the best study of men and religion I’ve ever read. Dr. Maldonado-Estrada has set a very high bar for scholars of religion, and I thank her for this exceptional book. -- Kristy Nabhan-Warren, author of The Virgin of El Barrio
In Lifeblood of the Parish, Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada presents a rich ethnography of Catholic men in Brooklyn crafting their masculinity in tattoos, costumed re-enactments, and the production of devotional artifacts. Devotion, she persuasively argues, is not just prayer and affection for the saints. It is the very production of masculinity. A remarkable contribution to the study of lived religion and its material culture, this book shows how fundamental gender, ethnicity, and community are to understanding religion as material practice. -- David Morgan, Duke University
In this deeply immersive ethnography, Maldonado-Estrada shows how the men of Italian Williamsburg create and perform themselves as men in their fierce devotion to each other, to the neighborhood, and especially to the work of staging of the annual feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. For all its joyful masculine exuberance, Maldonado-Estrada is unflinching in her treatment of the event’s racist undertow and homophobia, its exclusion of women, and its ugliness towards upper-middle class newcomers to Brooklyn. There is no better book about the fate of Italian American working-class masculinity and religion in the neoliberal fever dream that is New York City today than Lifeblood of the Parish. This is a major contribution to the literature of contemporary urban religion. -- Robert A. Orsi, author of The Madonna of 115th Street
The subtitle of Lifeblood of the Parish seems straightforward enough, but Maldonado-Estrada’s sensually sharp observations prove that there’s more at stake than a certain demographic population. In contrast to secularization theories and facile equations of women and devotion, Maldonado-Estrada finds masculine devotion at its most vigorous in basements and pizzerias, with liquor and cigars, tattoos and strong arms, against the background of gentrification and immigration. -- S. Brent Plate, author of A History of Religion in 5 1/2 Objects
Chapter-by-chapter the author’s descriptive language makes readers feel as though they are at the places under study, observing the conspicuous aspects of religion and newly considering the places where religion may be found…By the end of the book, readers should be convinced that religion is not merely found but is actually collectively forged in such spaces and represented on inked bodies and in the conviction with which collective stories of the neighborhood are told. * American Religion *
Lifeblood of the Parish turns on its head our understanding of Catholic devotionalism among Italian Americans and among Catholics in the United States more generally…It is difficult to imagine a list of must-read books about Italian American Catholics that does not include Lifeblood of the Parish. * Italian American Review *
Maldonado-Estrada approaches her work through a new lens and with different aspirations. The result is an insightful and compelling exploration of men working to define and live out understandings of masculinity and Catholic identity. * The Catholic Historical Review *