Introduction How Jesus Became the Christ; How Christianity Became an Empire; Racial Politics of the Virgin Mary: The Totalitarian Church; The Rise of Islam; The Muslim Conquest of Spain; The Spanish Catholics Get Back in the Saddle; Saint James against the Peoples of Color; Three Great Spanish American Catholics... ; Bartolomé de las Casas; Bernardino de Sahagún; Miguel Hidalgo; ...Who Never Made it to Beatification, Far Less Sainthood; How Catholicism Penetrated Mexico; The Pueblo Indian Uprising of 1680; Englishmen against Spaniards, Yankees against Indians.
1. Junípero Serra and the California Missions The Apostle Arrives in Mexico; His Mission in the Sierra Gorda; Serra's Work for the Inquisition; His Masochism; King Carlos Expels the Jesuits; Serra Leads the Franciscans into California; Early Hardships; The Mission as a Social System of the Imperial Frontier; The Missionaries and the Soldiers; The Indian Revolt at San Diego, 1775; Asylum, Punishment, and Pardon; A Hard-Headed Zealot, a Serene Fanatic; Serra's Conflicts with the Military Commanders; Pueblo San José vs. Mission Santa Clara; The Dispute; over Self-Government; More Soul-Saving than Life-Giving; Serra's Confirmation Campaign...and his Happy Death.
2. The Indians of California Gatherers, Fishers, Hunters; Environmental Management; Property Relations; Kinship, Marriage, and Divorce; Sex Separation and Women's Autonomy; Sexual Relations; Reproductive Rights and Childbirth; Kindness Towards Children; Justice without Shackles; Chiefs, Councils, and Shamans; Warfare and Restraint; Life's Joys; The Communal Impulse and the Selfish Impulse; The Dead and the Historical; A Vulnerable Balance
3. The Missions, Culture Shock, and European Invasion A New Way of Life...and New Ways of Death; Medical Conditions at the Missions; Bells of Joy, Bells of Sorrow; The Whip and the Cross; A Setback for Women; Indian Resistance and Rebellion; Toypurina the Sorceress and the San Gabriel Uprising; Soldiers/Colonists vs. Indians; Persistence of Indian Customs and Beliefs; Turn of the Century, Turn for the Worse; The Mission Indians under Mexican Rule; The Chumash Uprising of 1824; Secularization and Dispersal; The Gold Rush and Yankee Invasion; Indian Slavery in the Free Republic; Yankee Genocide; Was Serra a Racist?; An Apprenticeship for Feudalism.
4. The Vatican vs. the Peoples' Movements: Reconciliation or Liberation? Catholic Democracy, Liberation Theology; John Paul 2's Counter-Reformation; The Pope in Chile and Argentina; The Struggle within the North American Church; Catholic Women Advocates against the Vatican; The Case of Archbishop Hunthausen; The Gay Question; 'I Cannot Continue to be Silent...'; On the Ordination of Women; He Who Pays Peter's Pence Doesn't Get to Call the Tune; Serra vs. Liberation Theology.