History and Presence

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
Beginning with metaphysical debates in the sixteenth century over the nature of Christ's presence in the host, the distinguished historian and scholar of religion Robert Orsi imagines an alternative to the future of religion that early moderns proclaimed was inevitable.
"Orsi's evoking of the full reality of the holy in the world is extremely moving, shot through with wonder and horror."
—Caroline Walker Bynum, Common Knowledge
"This is a meticulously researched, humane, and deeply challenging book. The men and women studied in this book do not belong to 'a world we have lost.' They belong to a world we have lost sight of."
—Peter Brown, Princeton University
"[A] brilliant, theologically sophisticated exploration of the Catholic experience of God's presence through the material world... On every level—from its sympathetic, honest, and sometimes moving ethnography to its...