“Let Your Religion Be Less of a Theory and More of a Love Affair”

Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s telling quote comes to life in Spain’s little city of Avila.  Every corner of the city seems to call out to God through its many churches, devotion to St. Theresa of Avila, and religious processions.

I sense that there is an underlying bitterness towards the Catholic Church here in Spain, in my contemporary Spanish philosophy at Complutense University, or in conversations I have had with people, both young and old, for example.  Much of the repulsion is rooted in Spain’s history with Franco’s dictatorship.  Until this weekend, I had mostly seen religion as something acceptable only within one’s parish or personal life, but never acceptably lived in the public sphere.  Yet in Avila, religion is everywhere.  I took about 250 photos and realized that almost 200 of them had something religious in them, like a church or a cross.  I also experienced my first religion procession!  My Spanish friends explained that the tradition began to help the illiterate understand the stories of Jesus in the Bible.  Entire cities would follow gigantic statues that reenacted biblical stories all throughout the city, singing, and stopping for biblical readings.  In this way, all people had the opportunity to understand their faith and feel a closeness to the religion they worshipped.  Yet, to see people of all ages following the enormous statues of Jesus Christ and St. Theresa of Avila in 2014 was awe-inspiring.  Perhaps one can say that today it is all just empty tradition, but after being there firsthand, I just don’t think that explains it entirely.

Stay tuned for my next post.  It’s going to be intense.

Thanks for reading!

Sofía