Study of Christianities, Religions of Latin America, Theories of Religion, Native American Religions
Garry Sparks holds a BA from Austin College (Sherman, Texas) in Philosophy and Spanish, an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MDiv and PhD in Religious Studies and Theology from the University of Chicago where he also taught in the College and the Writing Program. Prior to George Mason University, he taught Humanities and Theology in the Honors College at Valparaiso University (Indiana), and then was Assistant Professor of Humanities and Global Study of Christianity at the University of Louisville (Kentucky).
His research and teaching interests focus on anthropological (socio-cultural and linguistic) and ethnohistorical understandings of theological production in the Americas, particularly among indigenous peoples. His areas include histories of Christian thought, theories of religion and of culture, religions of indigenous American peoples, and religion in Latin America. He specifically attends to the periods of first contact between Iberian mendicant missionaries and indigenous Mesoamericans as well as current religious movements like liberation theologies, “Indian” theology (teología india), Latin American Protestantisms, and the revitalization of indigenous traditionalism (such as Maya Spirituality or kojb’al). Since 1995 he has done human rights work with and conducted fieldwork and language study among the K'iche' and Kaqchikel Maya of Guatemala.
His previous publications include two books: The Americas' First Theologies (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Rewriting Maya Religion (University Press of Colorado, 2019). His third book project, in collaboration with Dr. Frauke Sachse (Dumbarton Oaks), will be a critical edition of the Kislak 1015 manuscript tentatively titled "A Priest's Notebook among Highland Maya: Early Vernacular Theology and Pastoral Ethnography in the Americas," supported by the Library of Congress, Jay I. Kislak Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. See, for example, Humanities (Winter 2018); and Library of Congress "Pic of the Week" (March 2018).
He is also currently coordinating in a multi-year collaborative project to produce the first critical translations into English and Spanish of the entire Theologia Indorum ("Theology for the Indians") from K'iche'an manuscripts with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and support from the American Philosophical Society. For more on this project, see: University of Bonn, Dept. of Ancient American Studies; "News at Mason" (May 2018); Mason Spirit (Nov. 2018); DAMALS and Archaeologie-Online (Dec. 2018).
He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Latin American Religions.
Books
The Americas' First Theologies: Early Sources of Post-Contact Indigenous Religion (Oxford University Press, 2017). It has been reviewed in Reading Religion of the American Academy of Religion (Jan. 2018), The Americas (Oct. 2018), Rivista di storia del christianeismo (Jan. 2019), Anthropos (2019), and Religious Studies Review (Dec. 2019).
Rewriting Maya Religion: Domingo de Vico, K'iche' Intellectuals, and the Theologia Indorum (University Press of Colorado, 2019).
Book Projects
Pastoral Fieldnotes: Edition and Commentary of a Sixteenth-century Missionary Handbook from the Maya Highlands, with Frauke Sachse (University Press of Colorado and Library of Congress Press, in process).
Articles and Chapters
“‘Holy’ (In)commensurabilities among Mendicants and Maya in the Sixteenth Century.” Encyclopedia of Global Middle Ages (Bloomsbury/Arc-Humanities Press, in process).
“Books and/as Idols: Affective Discourse in Early Colonial Dominican and Maya Writings.” The Transatlantic Bartolomé de las Casas: Lascasian Heritage, Indigenous Cultures, Scholastic Thought, and Historical Reception. Edited by Rady Roldán-Figueroa and David Thomas Orique (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, under contract).
“Maya Moral and Ritual Discourse: Dialogical Groundings for Consuetudinary Law.” In Journal of Religious Ethics 46, no. 1 (March 2018): 88-123.
“A Sixteenth-Century Priest’s Fieldnotes among Highland Maya: Proto-Theologia as Vade mecum.” With Frauke Sachse. In Words and Worlds Turned Around: Indigenous Christianities in Latin America. Edited by David Tavárez (University Press of Colorado, 2017), 102-123. It was reviewed in the American Academy of Religion's Reading Religion (March 2018), the International Journal of Latin American Religions (June 2018), Choice (June 2018), Latin American Antiquity (Sept. 2019), and Ethnohistory (Jan. 2020).
American Academy of Religion, Collaborative International Research Grant (2020)
National Endowment for the Humanities, Scholarly Translations Grant (2016-2019)
Mathy Junior Faculty Research Award (2016-2017)
National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend (2016)
RELI 100 Religion and the Human Experience (Introduction to Religious Studies & Theory)
RELI 235 Religion and Literature (Native Mesoamerican Religious Stories)
RELI 316 Modern Christian Thought and Critics (from the Enlightenment to L.A. Gangs)
RELI 320 Religion and Revolution in Latin America (Introduction to Liberation Theology)
RELI 333 Spiritual Autobiography (Ideas of "Self" and "Religion")
RELI 363 Introduction to Catholicism (A Case of Christianity and Cultures)
HNRS 130 Self, Other(s), Identity (Religious Autobiography)
PhD in Religious Studies, The University of Chicago (2011)
MDiv in Religious Studies, The University of Chicago (2004)
MA in Latin American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin (1996)
BA in Philosophy and Spanish, Austin College, Sherman, Texas (1993)
“Idoling Around with God(s) in Guatemala: Tracing Las Casas’s Theological Legacy among the Highland Maya.” II International Conference on Bartolomé de las Casas. Providence College, Rhode Island, July 2019.
“The (Re)Development of Mayan Languages and Literature.” Morgan State University, Baltimore, March 2019.