American Society of Church History

Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640-1750 by Kenneth
Mills
Review by: Gabriela Ramos
Church History, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Dec., 1998), pp. 831-833
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3169920 .
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BOOK REVIEWSAND NOTES

831

and a leading anti-apartheid activist. But the scrupulous attention to detail

that distinguished TCCR'spolicy research and the restrained tone of its staff's
dealings with the public are reflected in the book's presentation of the political
and financial analysis that lay behind TCCR's participation in shareholders
meetings and its briefs to government officials.
Pratt is careful to place the economic pressure exerted by the international
opposition to apartheid as secondary to the defiance of South Africans
themselves. One of the book's engaging features is her review of the legal
basis for apartheid and the fury it sparked in South Africa, which she
alternates with sections outlining the rather tepid policies of the Canadian
government, banks, and corporations. Providing a frank assessment of occasions where a good deal less was achieved than TCCR had hoped, she
suggests that the main impact of the coalition's work was in its role as
well-informed critic through indirect means such as heightening public awareness. Those looking for effective models for nongovernmental social action
will find this book instructive, as will historians examining the social agenda
of the churches and their coalitions in recent decades.
Phyllis D. Airhart
Emmanuel College, University of Toronto
Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 16401750. By Kenneth Mills. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. xvi +
337 pp. $55.00 cloth.
In this book, Kenneth Mills examines Andean religion during the midcolonial period. The author describes Andean religion by two main tenets: its
predominantly regional and local character,and its capacity for change and
adaptability that explains its endurance. Throughout his book, Mills carefully
studies these two aspects, particularly the second. He intends to provide a
close examination of local religion mainly in the rural highlands of the Lima
diocese and attempts to note and analyze the changes that took place
throughout the seventeenth century and the first fifty years of the eighteenth
century. Colonial Andean religion cannot be seriously described or understood without acknowledging the presence of the Catholic Church, particularly of its authorities and officers who were committed to the vigilance and
even the prosecution of the recently converted Andean population. To offer a
thorough view into Andean religion during the time period under scrutiny,
Kenneth Mills has also investigated the intellectual and professional trajectory
of several prominent colonial Catholic Church officials in Peru, particularly
those who had a leading role in the campaigns of religious repression known
as "extirpation of idolatry."Mills argues that had it not been for the presence
of strong personalities in the colonial Catholic Church who had not only the
initiative to launch but also consistently supported these campaigns, struggle
against what was then termed as "idolatry"would not have happened, as was
the case of the Lima diocese especially during the second half of the eighteenth century.
Mills proposes a new reading of the sources that to date have inspired a
number of investigations into colonial Andean religion, the extirpation of
idolatry visitas, and trials that took place in the Lima diocese. This new
reading is inspired in an approach that tries to see through the strong

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832

CHURCH HISTORY

oppositions that seemed to characterize the encounter of extirpators and

colonial Andean Indians. Instead of the extreme polarization that at a first
glance these documents suggest, by examining how colonial Andean Indians
described their beliefs and rituals when interrogated or accused in the context
of idolatry trials, the author attempts to offer a study of how religion was lived
in some rural villages in the central Andes. Thus, the book offers a number of
individual stories and descriptions of rituals abundant in these records. These
detailed accounts, found particularly in chapters 2 through 4, can at times be
tedious to a reader either unfamiliar with Andean religion or expecting a
depiction of a "religious system." As I have mentioned above, Mills also
follows the roles and ideas of prominent authorities in the colonial Catholic
Church. He has made an intensive and extensive use of letters and reports
located mainly in European archives to trace the shifts in church policy as well
as the intellectual background and careers of clergymen who participated in
the extirpation of idolatry campaigns, from archbishops to visitadores.Several
aspects of the analysis the author offers in this respect, like Archbishop Pedro
de Villag6mez's biography, are brilliantly crafted, and no doubt represent a
significant contribution to Andean colonial church history.
This book offers a criticism of what in the author's perspective are two
positions that characterizea fairly good number of studies of Andean colonial
religion. On the one hand, some scholars maintain that Andean Indians
consciously and systematically resisted Christianity and therefore did not
change their own religious practices and beliefs. On the other, some look at
colonial religion in the Andes as going through a process that at one end starts
from paganism to find, after several-sometimes painful-stages, the final
adherence to Catholicism. The author's careful analysis of local religion and
its problematic although perhaps not antagonistic relationship with Catholicism provides him with evidence to support his argument of the changing
quality of Andean colonial religion.
As compared to other studies written on this subject and region, this book's
contribution also lies in the use of a number of comparisons of the Andean
case with other areas of the world. Also, studies of religious change during the
colonial period focusing on New Spain-such as those of Clendinnen, Farriss,
Gruzinski, Klor de Alva, and Taylor,to mention a few of the most important
authors-provide for interesting examples and interpretations that Mills
cleverly uses to interrogate the Andean sources.
In regard to the historiography on this topic for the Andes, this book greatly
benefits from Pierre Duviols's study of Andean colonial religion, the most
solid work written on this subject (LaLuttecontreles religionsantochtonesdansle
Perou colonial [Lima: Institut francais d'etudes andines, 1971]). Readers not
familiar with colonial Andean history should definitely read Duviols's work
to understand the major historical context in which Idolatryand Its Enemiesis
situated.
This book has a number of merits, all of which are impossible to refer to in a
brief review. Nevertheless, there are certain limitations as well. Kenneth Mills
decided to provide a thorough analysis of local religion in the Andes, a task he
achieves well, nevertheless, at the high cost of isolating local religion from the
major colonial context. Although the author acknowledges that Andean
Indians were concerned about their material well-being when practicing and
explaining their religious views, and that a number of aspects of the colonial
situation dramatically affected Andean colonial society, these do not appear

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BOOK REVIEWSAND NOTES

833

but as an enunciation in this study. Changes Andean religion went through

were due precisely because of the dynamics taking place at a larger level.
Although no doubt intellectual or ideological reasons had a powerful influence in inducing change in religious life, they are not sufficient to explain
either the Andean Indian's incorporation of Christianity into their lives, or the
policy followed by an influential sector of the colonial Catholic Church who
managed to carry out investigations into Andeans' religious practices. Nevertheless, Idolatryand Its Enemiesopens a number of new vistas into the history
of religion in the Andes, and it should certainly stimulate further studies.
Gabriela Ramos
University of Pennsylvania
Renderingunto Caesar: The Catholic Churchand the State in Latin America.
By Anthony Gill. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. xiv + 269 pp.
$41.00 cloth; $15.95 paper.
Latin America is not a Roman Catholic continent in stricto sensu, but the
Catholic version of the Christian faith has been quite influential in shaping the
Latin American culture. The Hispanic soul was molded by a dialectic tension
between extremes. Religious passion imposed Christianity through a process
of a bellicose evangelization, reinforced by the work of the Inquisition and its
ideology during the colonial period. With the emergence of the national states
at the beginning of the last century, the church began to act defensively and
developed forms of conservatism both officially and spontaneously.
It is well recognized that Latin American Catholics have been among the
most conservative in the world. The restoration of doctrinal uniformity and
centralized discipline has been a part of the majoremphasis toward which the
energies of the church seem to have been oriented. As a result, a conservative
backlash has dominated the Latin American Catholic hierarchy's life for most
of its history. Some national bishops' conferences have grown more and more
conservative, particularly in the last twenty years. Attacks on liberation
theologians have continued and efforts have been made to assure that the next
generations of seminary graduates reflect the conservative mentality that
prevails among high-ranking prelates. These religious leaders have traditionally placed more emphasis in internal ecclesiastical affairs, and their activities
did not go beyond sacramental and evangelical functions to include social,
political, and economic activities. Coincidentally, these same prelates in
Argentina, Honduras, and Uruguay supported authoritarian military regimes. At the same time, in countries such as Chile, El Salvador, and Brazil the
hierarchy publicly denounced repressive dictatorial rulers. In these countries,
a new kind of Catholicism has been emerging, different from the traditional
Catholicism that rested on its political opportunism.
In this way, in the last thirty years, Latin America has seen two different
streams of Roman Catholicism. On the one side, an authoritarian, Roman,
clerical Catholicism appears, which Ivan Vallier correctly calls "papist." This
conservative attitude is characterized by a worldview that absolutely denies
any autonomy in human activities, any hint of secularization, or any privatization of religion. Their goal is instaurareomniain Christo.For them Christianity
has to be all in life and life as a whole has to be Christian (that is, Roman
Catholic). On the other side, there is a Roman Catholicism that is more
sensitive to the core of the Christian faith, incarnation and service. This

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