11/07/2025 08:30
- 10:45
HALL: Dean's Hall of the Faculty of Catholic Theology
Proponent:
Chambon M.
Chair:
Granziera P.
Speaker:
Chambon M.,
Granziera P.,
Papis V.S.
This panel explores the ways Asian forms of devotion towards the Virgin Mary shed light on the cultural and religious dialogues occurring between Europe and Asia. By looking at Marian devotions within different Asian Catholic communities, this panel discusses the ways European representations of Mary (Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, etc.) are approached, transformed, and contested by contemporary Asian Catholics.
Going beyond the notion of inculturation per se, this panel aims at questioning forms of international dialogue and "inter-culturation" through a methodological study of Marian devotions. Among the many representations of Mary, some are indeed more common than others. And these patterns of devotion vary between the domestic sphere, vernacular sites of devotion, and official churches of Asian Catholicism. But in these different spheres, how common and dominant European representations of Mary are? How are they envisioned to shape normative practices (pilgrimages to Portugal, France, etc.) and narratives (anti-communism, persecution, etc.) of Asian Catholicism? Which aspects of European societies are mobilized to reshape these religious imaginaries?
By focusing at Euro-Asian engagements through a Marian perspective, this panel takes one of the most distinct elements of the papal religion as a tool to systematically question notions of religious localization, globalization, and decolonization. It explores the national, gender and kinships ideals promoted through these devotions in order to provide new material and methodology to document cultural and religious flows between the two continents as well as the on-going making of global Catholicism.
This panel welcomes historical, sociological, and anthropological studies focused on practices in Asia and within diasporic communities.